STAR WARS: FATE OF THE JEDI: THE RETURN OF DARTH PLAGUEIS
by DhuryamDhuryam
Summary: 46 ABY: Post Crucible. Part 1 of my FOTJ continuation. Darth Plagueis had returned! Four Jedi are missing after looking into strange Black Sun activity involving the Killiks, on the border of the Chiss Ascendancy. Prince Xizor's heir's somehow involved in this. A Solo vacation thus turns dangerous. Luke and Ben meet an old 'friend'. Has been combined with Dark Nest 4: Slave Nest.
1. Chapter 1

Chapters 1-6, 10 and 17 form the original version of The Return of Darth Plagueis. The other chapters form what was Dark Nest 4: Slave Nest. So if you're just interested in one of the original fics, you can read just the chapters relating to that fic.

Chapter 1: Death

32 BBY: Coruscant: Senate Building

The blue skinned Twi'lek Senator Orn Free Ta had just announced his nomination of Senator Palpatine. But while that was, of course, a step in the right direction, it was no guarantee that Darth Plagueis' apprentice Darth Sidious would be elected as Supreme Chancellor. And until Palpatine's chancellorship was ensured the Muun Sith Lord could not, would not allow himself to rest.

Darth Sidious radiated a calm sense of confidence into the Force. Plagueis _reached_ out to him, and was slightly concerned by just how confident his apprentice seemed. With extreme care, as to not alert Palpatine to what he was doing, Plagueis probed just a tiny bit deeper. Of course there was a certain darkness there; they were both powerful Sith Lords. But there was something else there. Just the smallest of flickers. But enough for Plagueis to pull away. And to force him to suppress a shudder.

Darth Plagueis reached out toward his apprentice a second time, hoping that he'd somehow made some sort of mistake. That he had not read Sidious correctly. But no. It was still there. That same subtle darkness he'd felt within himself, nearly fifty years earlier, mere days before he'd killed his own master, Darth Tenebrous at that mine on Bal'demnic. Hego Damask had had no inkling of its significance at the time. Had not known that he'd already decided to take the life of his master.

Palpatine certainly would not know the he'd already made a very similar decision. Though he knew it not, Sidious' mind had been made up. And would not be changed. The fool! Palpatine did not understand the Grand Plan as Darth Plagueis did. He had failed to truly comprehend the Sith imperative. All the Muun Sith Lord's planning could be for naught. Darth Plagueis could not allow this.

Plagueis could simply kill his apprentice. Search out a replacement. Start the whole sordid process over again. And undo decades of careful, meticulous work. No. While Darth Sidious may have been a fool for what he'd purposed to do, he was still vital to the Grand Plan. Without Palpatine the plan to save the galaxy from itself, from the Jedi would surely fail. Would crumble as many of Coruscant's countless ancient buildings currently did.

Nor could Darth Plagueis just disappear. Palpatine would be constantly looking over his shoulder, fearing that his former master was planning his death. Darth Sidious needed to devote his full attention to his part in the Grand Plan. Palpatine needed to know that his master, Darth Plagueis was dead. _Or at least he needs to_ believe _I'm dead._ Yes, his only hope was to deceive his apprentice. His body would have to die, but his spirit would have to live.

But for his spirit to remain in this profane realm, Hego Damask would need some sort of physical anchorage point. Essence transference. Many Sith Lords had been able to do this. Most remained as disembodied spirits, only able to affect the physical realm by influencing the actions of others who happened to pass by. In rare cases these Sith had managed to inhabit another, perhaps an apprentice or a cloned body. But that often meant having another mind to contend with. And that other mind was not always cooperative.

What Hego Damask desired was true immortality. Of both body and soul. Not existence as a mere facsimile, a mere mockery of life. But Darth Plagueis might not even be able to manage that much. Palpatine would be making his move very soon, and Hego Damask had devoted very little study to essence transfer. Tens of thousands of ancient texts had been destroyed during the attack on his former dwelling on the moon of Sojourn. The key to his success may have lay in one of those many scrolls.

Time was short, indeed.

As preoccupied as he was by all this, Hego Damask had been paying virtually no attention to the rest of the assembly. After what seemed like days the assembly had finally concluded.

"You seemed… distracted, Master," Darth Sidious commented as the two Sith Lords turned to leave the mobile platform representing his home world of Naboo.

Darth Plagueis let out a sigh. "I was experiencing a very vivid Force vision," he lied. "There were so many images and whispers, and I will need some time alone with the Force to sort it all out."

"Well, then," Palpatine said with a nod, "I shall leave you to it. I have plenty of things myself that need attending."

#

Kaldani Spires

"You seem quite stressed, Master," the droid 11-4D told Hego Damask as he just about ran through the doorway and into his penthouse.

"Palpatine plans to kill me," the Muun responded. He began explaining his dilemma to the droid, but stopped when he glimpsed a ray of light from the setting sun glinting off of a data storage crystal. Yes, crystals were known for the astonishing amount of information they could hold. And, in the case of the crystalline tsils of the little known world of Nam Chorios, they even host a consciousness. Could Darth Plagueis store his consciousness in a data storage crystal?

He'd read of experiments in which this had been attempted. There had been some success, though the scientists had yet to determine whether the consciousness had actually been transferred or if it had simply been duplicated. But these scientists had not had the Force as Plagueis did.

Darth Plagueis picked up the data crystal and frowned. He remembered, as a young boy, watching a data crystal fall to the floor and shatter. Far too fragile. Hego Damask needed something more...

He unclipped the lightsaber from his belt, and examined it a moment. Within the metal cylinder was a red focusing crystal. Hego Damask had spent long hours shaping that crystal with a small laser cutter. The precision required had been painstaking and beyond tedious. After being baked for several hours before hand, the crystal had become incredibly strong. He still remembered the pride he'd felt when he'd finished.

Plagueis quickly disassembled the lightsaber and stared at its crimson focusing crystal. He reached outward toward the Force, that great reservoir, and took hold of that dark power it offered. As Hego Damask channeled that power toward the crystal, he was able to peer into it. Able to see its molecular bonds. He grasped the focusing crystal with his mind and started to _pull_ himself over to it. The Sith Lord could feel himself stepping out of his own body.

And then the entire universe was suddenly submerged in a great sea of crystalline crimson. Cold, but not unpleasantly so. Darth Plagueis just floated there. For seconds, or perhaps hours. He was not quite sure. The Sith Lord gazed down into depths of such deep red that they were nearly black. He would have to swim down deeper, much deeper, to get to the heart of the crystal. But once there, would he be able to make it back to the surface? If not, he would likely be stuck inside the focusing crystal.

His apprentice Darth Sidious was powerful in the Force; he would certainly sense that something was amiss and then, with little effort, divine what had happened. And he would surely destroy the focusing crystal.

And so Hego Damask turned his gaze upward, toward the surface, where this great crimson sea lightened to a pinkish hue. Plagueis allowed himself to float upward and, some time later, he broke the surface... The Sith Lord found himself, once again, inside his own body, sitting behind his desk. He sat up, as his head had been slumped forward.

Yes, Darth Plagueis could do this. But the crystal would have to be somewhere Palpatine would be unable to find it. The Muun Sith Lord thought about it a couple moments, and then recalled a short news segment relating to a housing complex to be built partially over an ancient bomb shelter. Such was the way of the counterfeit sparkling jewel that was Coruscant, to build the new upon the old. Many ancient tribal peoples had done similarly, constructing new, larger temples over those of extinct or conquered peoples.

Of course Hego Damask could not count on Darth Sidious killing his body anywhere near this ancient bunker. Which meant that Plagueis' spirit would have to be transported a considerable distance in order to get to the focusing crystal. Darth Plagueis would need a sort of conduit along which to travel. He immediately dismissed the idea of using wires. Even if there were adequately intact wires leading from the bomb shelter, they were unlikely to lead to where he would be murdered. Hego Damask would need a conduit that was not fixed, one he could direct by his own will. He glanced briefly at his comlink. With two of them he could establish such a conduit.

#

Darth Plagueis could see countless bursts of red orange light coming to life against a sparkling backdrop. Needles of light silently screamed back and forth, crashing into shimmering bubbles of energy, within which resided enormous grayish shapes. Many of the these shapes were wedge like, while others had a more organic, almost aquatic look. Other shapes, mere specks in comparison flitted about like swarms of hornets. Plagueis realized that he was seeing a savage space battle, perhaps multiple ones,

And then there was a man lying on the ground, horribly burned and moaning in agony. The image soon changed to that of a caped black clad cyborg accompanied by a sound of labored breathing, with a peculiar mechanical quality. And Plagueis had the strange feeling that he'd met this man before.

The waking dream soon faded, allowing Darth Plagueis to bring his attention back to the landing platform, on which he'd been spying, to see the ship which had been resting there taking for the sky. The Muun Sith Lord and 11-4D had taken a detour to a nearby public observatory where Plagueis could observe a meeting involving Qui Gon Jinn, his apprentice Obi-wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, and the young Senator Padme Amidala.

"They are on the ship, master," 11-4D provided helpfully.

#

500 Republica

Given Darth Plagueis' profound state of intoxication, in which the old Muun could scarcely lift his wine glass, it was apparent that he'd been drugged. Most likely by some unseen substance Sidious had put in his glass. As this poison began to take effect, the Muun Sith Lord could feel his hearts' rate decreasing. It also started becoming hard to breathe; his respirator began to make clicking sounds as it was forced to work just a wee bit harder.

But Darth Plagueis could not allow himself to die just yet. He drew subtly on the dark side of the Force, so that Palpatine could not detect it, and slowed down the effects of this poison. Some sort of neurotoxin, perhaps.

Darth Plagueis began to feel Sidious drawing on the dark side. And less than a second later Plagueis could feel an arc of Force lightning grounding itself on his respirator. The Muun Sith Lord fed upon it and began gathering a massive amount of Force energy. But he needed more.

And so Darth Plagueis opened his eyes and stared at Sidious a moment. Issuing a challenge to his apprentice and allowing a sense of confidence to bleed into the Force. Sidious responded with a brief sense of confusion, which quickly grew to rage and disgust. _Yes, you fool, you know exactly what_ _to do._ Palpatine again drew on the dark side, much more deeply this time, perhaps more deeply than he'd ever done previously, and launched mighty arcs of Force lightning at his former master. Darth Plagueis fed off these dark energies even as they destroyed his already failing body.

Darth Plagueis brought his attention to 11-4D. To the data crystal and comlink concealed within. The Muun Sith Lord focused the Force energy he'd gathered into a tiny point and suddenly _jumped_ out of his own body, into a sea of sparkling silver white diamond. He could feel himself sinking and being ripped from his body as the comlink transported his spirit to a second one hidden miles away, in that old bomb shelter. The diamond sea darkened to pink and then red as that second comlink beamed his spirit through the nearby lightsaber's emitter nozzle, and into the crimson focusing crystal. And Darth Plagueis continued to sink. Down into an endless void. For an eternity. But also, for an instant. For time had utterly ceased to exist.

Behind him Palpatine could hear strange hissing and popping sounds, and he could smell an acrid smoke. He turned and saw that Plagueis' droid was billowing grayish smoke. The machine had suddenly shorted out. Had bloody near exploded. Darth Sidious glanced back at the dead Muun in slight confusion. Why had he gathered up all that Force energy? And why had the old man seemed so confident?

Palpatine turned back to the droid and could not help but laugh. The old nutter had apparently tried to transfer his consciousness to his droid, and had succeeded only in causing a catastrophic overload. "Plagueis the Wise, indeed," Sidious said sarcastically. He reached out to the droid, but could not feel his former master's presence. He would, nonetheless, have the droid incinerated, just to be safe.

 **Author's note: Plagueis lacked the skill to directly transfer his consciousness to the comlink, hence his use of the data crystal/the sea of silver white diamond.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's note: This is sort of a missing scene from FATE OF THE JEDI: APOCALYPSE.**

 **I've made some changes to chapter 1 based on feedback from Tyrant Jedi.**

Chapter 2: Rebirth

44 ABY: Coruscant:

 _It_ had floated there, just beneath the surface of that lake, for an eternity and also an instant. This constant state, somewhere between life and death, was all _It_ knew. All _It_ had ever known. _It_ and that lake were all that existed. All that ever had and ever will. There was nothing else. There never would be. Never could be.

And yet, there was something else. Another presence. Another being. _It_ was not alone. _It_ burned with longing. What was this other entity? This being which could not exist, and yet did. _It_ tried to _touch_ this other presence. For _It_ had spent an eternity alone. Alone beneath the surface of that endless lake.

This other presence reached back. _She_ was a beacon of darkness and power. She offered this to _It_. To _him._ He pulled at this power, fed on it.

She gently cradled _It_. _It_ spent an eternity and an instant in her embrace, as she lifted _It_ to the surface and then up into a sky of blood red diamond. As _It_ was lifted higher the sky lightened to pink…

The dark side incarnate stood across from _It_ , glowing in the darkest radiance. The most immediately noticeable feature was the enormous, gaping mouth, full of tiny, curved, onyx needle-like fangs. Sunk deep into her eye sockets were small points of silver light. And below these eyes was a subtle hint of a nose. Long, course yellow hair framed this hideous, yet strangely beautiful face. She held a metal cylindrical object, with a shaft of crimson light protruding from one end.

"The dark man," she said, in a thousand different voices. And yet, one single voice. The most beautiful sound _It_ -no, _he_ had ever heard.

This dark man quickly looked himself over. He was utter darkness. A nearly featureless shadow of a man. He had longed to be immortal. But not like this. Not as one both dead and alive. Undead. Was his immortality to be a curse? Would he be driven mad by betrayal and an incurable hunger? As he became more cognizant he realized that not all these thoughts were his. He looked back at the being who had brought him back. He pitied this poor and despised creature, haunted endlessly by her own darkness.

"My name is Abeloth," she continued. "I have long awaited your arrival, Lord Plagueis."

Had Abeloth, then, foreseen his arrival? His return? Perhaps this had all been meant to happen. The dark man took one of her tentacles, and brought it to where his mouth should have been. Abeloth wanted to feel loved. If she believed he truly cared for her then it would make her a better ally. "My lady."

"You are weak," Abeloth said. "I have given you all the strength that I could afford." She gestured, with an oily, black tentacle, toward a ship resembling a massive disembodied eye, to which were attached four bat-like wings. A Sith Meditation Sphere. "This is _Ship_. He will take you to a vessel waiting just outside the system. And from there you shall be brought to Korriban if you so choose."

 **Author's note: Yes, I know that was quite short. The following scenes warranted their own chapter, given the differing subject matter, and were holding me up on posting this.**

 **And I am not sure how far Plagueis' feelings for Abeloth should extend. Perhaps, he's just thankful she brought him back. Let me know what you think. And I hope you like where this story is going.**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Revelations

 _ **Poison Moon**_

Darth Plagueis sat cross legged on the floor of an empty cargo hold. In physical darkness, and a more profound darkness as the dark side of the Force washed over him, seeping into every fiber of his being. He'd been asleep for over seventy five years. So much had happened. The empire established by his former apprentice, Sidious, had ruled for a time. And then had been defeated.

Years later the galaxy had been invaded by a ruthless warrior race called the Yuuzhan Vong. They had existed apart from the Force, having been abandoned by it because of their brutality. Darth Plagueis found unnecessary violence to be rather distasteful. And it accomplished nothing.

The Yuuzhan Vong were eventually defeated. Thanks in part to their pride. The extra galactic fools had refused to retreat, even from battles they knew were hopeless. As a result, they would sometimes lose an entire fleet unnecessarily.

Darth Plagueis is suddenly outside of his body. Standing an undefined distance away is Abeloth. She stands upon a circular plane, the Balance of the Force, weighing it down. Tipping it toward darkness. An unbalanced, destructive darkness. The disk continues to tip… And begins to fall… into a great endless void.

The disk becomes trillions of points of light. The galaxy. Spinning as it has for eons. And then it begins to slow. Continues to slow down until it has all but stopped. The lights begin to die. Until only two remain. Two shining points of silvery light. A great, ragged tear forms in the fabric of space-time below, relatively speaking, the two stars.

Darth Plagueis knew Abeloth was necessary. She had rekindled the fire of the Grand Plan when she'd helped bring him back. But something would have to be done about her, lest the fire become uncontrollable, unquenchable. Lest she plunge the galaxy into endless chaos.

And there are shadows of things to come, which Plagueis does not yet understand. Some of these phantoms do not belong to the Force. But unlike the Yuuzhan Vong, they do exist in something. An Anit-Force. Like Abeloth, it seeks to destroy. But it is far more vile. Abeloth is a monster because she has been tortured. This Anti-Force is a monster because it _is_ the torturer.

Darth Plagueis suddenly recoiled from the disturbing vision. An apocalypse, of some sort, was coming. It was an utter necessity.

 **Korriban**

Darth Krayt stepped out into the large, hole rimmed crater as the _Poison Moon_ touched down in the great depression. A boarding ramp descended from the side of the ship. The human Sith Lord was mildly surprised as, seconds later, a featureless shadow of a man walked down toward him. So nonexistent were his features, that he almost appeared to be two dimensional. The Dark Man. Krayt had not expected him to be so... literal. To be literal darkness.

Nor had Krayt expected the Dark Man to be... undead. Suspended between life and death. Two eternally warring conditions. Dician, the _Poison Moon's_ captain, had simply said that the Dark Man was on his way to Korriban. She'd made no mention of the Dark Man's undead state. Perhaps, she'd been concerned that the Jedi might overhear.

The _Poison Moon_ began to lift off seconds after the Dark Man's feet made contact with the lifeless, dusty ground. The freighter took to the sky, and disappeared into the sparkling ether of an endless night.

"My Lord," Darth Krayt said, with a slight bow.

"You may call me Darth Plagueis," said the Dark Man after the tattooed man had introduced himself.

* * *

 **"I, too,** have had a similar vision," Darth Krayt told Darth Plagueis, after the Dark Man had described what he'd been shown by the dark side of the Force, as the two Sith Lords walked through a series of corridors. "Abeloth grows more powerful each day. Soon we will be unable to stop her. If she is allowed free reign, she will destroy the galaxy."

"It's a shame that Abeloth could not be a true ally," Plagueis mused. She was immensely powerful, and magnificent. But all she would do was bring chaos. This was vital for restarting the Grand Plan, but it was also a threat to the plan's ultimate goal: lasting peace. "You have a way to stop her?"

"Only temporarily," Krayt explained. "Her physical bodies can be destroyed, but she exists on a higher dimension. The best we can do at this point is to weaken her. There is a weapon that might be able to permanently destroy her. I've had visions of it. A black dagger beyond a glowing gateway. Unfortunately, I do not know the location of this gateway."

"And so we buy time to find this weapon," Darth Plagueis concluded, as he and Krayt stepped into a massive dome shaped cavern. "The Force shall show us the way. It has no choice in the matter." The Dark Man turned toward Krayt, looking at him through the Force, since he had no eyes. "Your colleague, Dician tells me there is a world full of Sith."

Darth Krayt nodded. "Kesh. Dician recently initiated a dialogue with them. We believe we can find common ground with them. And one of them, it seems, has had a vision of you. You could prove instrumental in uniting our two groups."

Plagueis nodded his silhouette of a head in approval. "One Sith, leading many. I learned long ago that the Rule of Two had become impractical. The galaxy can't be ruled by two Sith alone. There must be many, working toward a common goal."

"There has been far too much infighting among the Sith," Darth Krayt agreed. "And the Jedi have flourished because of it." The look on his face, and the seething rage under the surface of his Force aura, suggested that he wanted to eviscerate someone.

"I've foreseen a time of great tribulation, where the galaxy shall burn," Plagueis said. "The galaxy will be unmade so that it can be remade. And the Sith shall be its masters. As a united front we will bring order to the galaxy. The Jedi claim that they want peace. And I do believe they desire it. But they fail to understand or acknowledge that destruction must come first. The Jedi are too weak to do what must be done or to allow what must come."

"A war to end all wars," Krayt surmised.

"The basic essence of the Grand Plan," Plagueis said. He felt a powerful dark side presence enter the room just then, and turned to see a large Barabel walking over to the him.

"Darth Plagueizs," the reptilian being said with a hissing lisp. "I am Darth Blight."

"Named after the Blight of Barab, perhaps?" Plagueis asked.

Darth Krayt nodded. "He has the unique abil... augh!" The human Sith suddenly stumbled forward, onto his knees. "Stop that, you mynock!" Krayt grumbled. He stood back up as the Barabel released him. Krayt shook his head in annoyance. "Darth Blight has the unique ability to transmit sickness, through the midichlorians, to other Force users. He sometimes refers to himself as the Sith of Pestilence."

"Fascinating," Plagueis said. "And what about non Force users?"

"They have too few midichlorians for it to work," Krayt explained. "Do you..."

"possess midichlorians?" Plagueis finished. "I do not believe so."

"Perhapzs we zshould find out." Darth Blight suggested.

Krayt glared at the Barabel in slight disapproval. The tattooed human then looked to Plagueis.

"Go ahead," Darth Plagueis told Blight. "I am intrigued to see what will happen." He could feel the reptilian Sith _reaching_ out to him. The dark side began coalescing around Blight like iron filaments to a magnet. Plagueis felt the darkness trying to 'stab' into him. But he experienced no ill effects. These invisible knives of energy simply passed through him as though he were smoke.

Darth Blight suddenly stopped his efforts. "You are completely devoid of midichlorianzs, my lord."

"As I suspected, midichlorians are simply one of multiple ways in which one can access, and exist within, the Force."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Apprentice

 **Chiss Ascendancy**

It was a rather quiet life, living in this wooden cabin on a world almost completely devoid of sentient life. It was one of the least important worlds within Chiss space. The planet did not even have a name, save for a lackluster series of numbers and letters. Were the world to suddenly disappear it might go unnoticed for several months. And even when said disappearance was discovered, the event would merely be logged and forgotten. The planet lost and forgotten.

Chiss Fleet Commander Mitth'ord'envar preferred things this way. A refuge where he could escape from the sterile gray walls of the inside of a Chiss Star Destroyer. Where something other than a lifeless and empty void waited outside.

But most importantly, it was safer for his family this way. His wife Chaf'aria'nagaru was a liaison with the Imperial Remnant. And while this would not have been a problem for most Chiss men, it was if that Chiss man had the privilege of being the nephew of the infamous, and widely despised among the Chiss, Grand Admiral Thrawn. It thus could not get out that Thorden had any sort of connection to the Empire, as tenuous as that connection may have been.

Very few people, aside from Thorden's father-in-law Chaf'orm'bintrano, knew of his marriage to Fariana. And it would have to be kept that way.

Mitth'ord'envar returned his attention to the small datacard sitting on his desk. And it moved. Only a millimeter or so, but it was something. And it confirmed what he'd begun to suspect. He had always seemed to know when something important was going to happen. And his reflexes seemed almost supernatural. Yes, he could use the Force. His son Mitth'rae'sevris probably could, too.

Sure, being able to move an object without touching it was exciting, but what could he do with it? He was certain he could do great things with this gift he'd been given, if only there was someone to show him how. The galaxy could be a dangerous place, and Thorden needed to be able to protect his family, and the rest of his people. And it would be nice to be able to make up for the dishonor his uncle, Thrawn, had brought upon the Mitth House.

Thorden closed his eyes and visualized a communications array. _He_ was the communications array. He began to slow his breathing. Began to lower his heart rate and blood pressure. And there it was. All that raw, untapped power. That battery with which he could power that communications array. He imagined himself plugging a cord into a wall outlet.

Thorden drank in the power of the Force like a dry sponge. He thought of a star going nova, sending all that power outward. And Thorden sent the Force outward. He did this at least once a day, sometimes more, when not distracted by more immediate concerns. And though he had yet to receive…

A response! Someone had just found him.

Thorden tried to focus this Force energy. Like a pulsar, a star that would send out a single, concentrated burst at regular intervals. And there it was again. That response. But stronger this time.

* * *

 **Thorden frowned** as he stepped out of the cabin. He'd known this mysterious being's presence would be feel different when they got closer. But this... This being didn't even seem to be alive. The only other option which came to mind was 'dead'. However, this being didn't seem dead, either. Thorden laughed quietly to himself as a third, utterly preposterous, option occurred to him: undead. And yet this being was certainly not some mindless zombie. _You're thinking far too much; they will explain themselves._

Mitth'ord'envar spotted some sort of freighter, Corellian, perhaps, landed several dozen meters away, near a forested area. The boarding ramp was already down. Thorden kept a careful eye on it as he approached. He suddenly stopped in his tracks as a hooded figure walked down.

"Mitth'ord'envar," called the strange hooded... man?

"So, you're the one I've been contacting," the Chiss fleet commander said slowly. There was a healthy amount of distrust in the man's Force aura; Plagueis would have been deeply concerned had there not been.

The robed figure nodded his hooded head. "You may call me Hego Damask." Plagueis used his given name as he was not certain that Thorden would be willing to work with a Sith. While the Sith did want peace, they were often misrepresented, made to look like monsters and murderers. Yes, the Sith sometimes committed what were considered atrocities, but it was all for the greater good. Hopefully, in time, Thorden would be made to understand this.

The strange man pulled back his hood, revealing... nothing but the blackest darkness. Thorden stifled a gasp. Who the Void... what the Void was this? "I thought you would be…"

"different?" Darth Plagueis supplied. "This was not a form I'd expected to take either." The undead Sith Lord thought back to when he'd first met Palpatine. The young man had shown great potential. The dark side manifestation could feel something similar from Thorden. Could this man become what Plagueis had hoped Sidious would be? "You have the potential to become quite powerful, Thorden. You could accomplish great things."

"That's good to know," the Chiss man responded, nodding. "But you must want something in return."

"What I want is peace. That is also what you want, is it not? We can help each other to achieve this noble goal. But I must warn you: you may have to do certain things that you… dislike."

"But it would be for the greater good, yes?"

Plagueis nodded. "Certainly. I will show you how to use this incredible gift you've been given, and will help you assume a position of leadership. So, you will also have political power."

Thorden nodded slowly. It certainly sounded good, but there was something that just seemed... off. He brought his attention back to Hego Damask.

"You are curious about something, it seems," the shadow man said.

Thorden waited almost half a minute before speaking. "You seem rather... dark. Are you a..."

"Sith?" Plagueis said. "Yes. You may call me Darth Plagueis if you like."

Thorden just stood there a moment, not sure how to respond. He must have known, on some subconscious level, at least, that this man was a Sith. But it wasn't until he'd actually heard the word 'Sith' that the implications began to sink in.

"Sith. Jedi," the shadow man went on, as though reading the Chiss Fleet Commander's thoughts. "They're just words. Nothing more. Nothing less. If you don't like the word Sith, then do not call yourself a Sith. Yes, the Jedi would also teach you how to use the Force. But they would also teach you that it is something to be feared. What good is power if you are too afraid to use it? You can use it to protect those you love. Is that wrong?"

Thorden shook his head. "Of course not. In fact, it would be wrong not to."

"Indeed. But the Jedi often do not act, out of fear of being corrupted by their own power. The Sith, however, embrace their power, and understand that they must risk becoming corrupt for the good of the galaxy. Unlike the Jedi, the Sith do not selfishly overvalue their morality. We are willing to become monsters if that is what the Force requires of us."

"Your name has the word 'plague' in it, it sounds like," Thorden commented.

Darth Plagueis nodded. "Sometimes a plague is necessary. To remove what is, and make room for that which is new."

"That is often the purpose of a forest fire," Thorden mused. "The fire removes the old growth, and allows certain seed pods to open so that the plants inside can germinate."

"Yes," Plagueis agreed. "The galaxy must be remade."

"I realize this is a lot to take in," Plagueis continued. "I will give you time to make your decision."

"I appreciate that," Thorden said. "I'll think about it and... get back to you. The same way I've been contacting you, I assume?"

"Yes." And with that Darth Plagueis headed back to his ship.

* * *

 **Mitth'ord'envar's racing** mind allowed him very little sleep that night. His conversation with the Sith Lord, Darth Plagueis, kept replaying itself, as though on a loop. The great darkness coming from the shadow man had been unnerving. So unnatural. But was proof of Plagueis' incredible power.

Thorden's hesitancy to work with this Sith Lord came from fear. That same fear which prevented the Jedi from taking action, even when it was a sin not to. So many had died because of this. _I mustn't let others suffer due to my own cowardice._ He would embrace the darkness and it would reward him with power. To protect those he loved. And if the darkness did corrupt him, so be it. He was willing to sacrifice his soul for his family, if it was required of him.

In an effort to push these thoughts away, at least long enough for him to get some much needed sleep, Thorden focused on his wife Chaf'aria'nagaru. Fariana's small body lay curled up against him, her soft breathing providing a constant background to his thoughts. So quiet was the night that Thorden could hear her heart beating.

Thorden then brought his attention to his four year old son, Mitth'rae'sevris, asleep in the next room, in his little bed. The little boy slept so peacefully, completely unaware of all the galaxy's never ending turmoil. Thorden thought on his young son's serenity, and sought to replicate it.


	5. Chapter 5

sudoku -Though rare, Force sensitivity has been documented among the Chiss.

Chapter 5: The Sword

 **Nal Hutta**

Sitting on the repulsor couch was an enormous slug-like creature, with a large, gaping mouth, and a pair of large, red-brown eyes. The creature stared at the robed figure nervously.

"Gardulla the Elder," Darth Plagueis said.

"You are properly informed," the Hutt replied in a wet, rubbery sounding voice, as one of her stubby arms seemed to be reaching for something. Some sort of call button for the lazy slug's servants or, in this case, guards.

Darth Plagueis' lightsaber was suddenly in his hand, _snap-hissing_ to life. "That will do you no good," the Sith Lord stated calmly. "The guards outside the door are unconscious." Killing them would have greatly displeased Gardulla, thus making her less willing to work with him. "And if I'd wanted to kill you, you'd have already been dead. No, what I need from you is information."

Gardulla nodded her enormous head. "Would you care to provide a name?"

"Darth Plagueis. You have met me before, under a different name. Hego Damask. My associate, Larsh Hill, and myself met with you on the moon of Sojourn. You told me of your plans to 'make a grab for Tattooine'. You wanted me to help fund a podrace course on the world. And I was to be your 'silent partner' in the endeavor. I agreed, on the stipulation that I receive a percentage of your profits, and that the Dug, Boss Cabra be allowed to operate freely Nar Shaddaa."

"Perhaps you tell the truth. But I thought Hego Damask was dead."

"It's a rather long story. Suffice it to say that I managed to retake physical form. Are you still monitoring Black Sun?"

"You insult me, Darth Plagueis. I still have many spies within their organization. They report to me regularly. My spies have provided extensive information on Black Sun's resources and areas of activity, among other things. I can give you the information on a data card."

"That would be greatly appreciated," Darth Plagueis said. The undead Sith Lord could sense just the tinniest glimmer of fear from the repulsive Hutt. Gardulla knew full well who held the power, here. And there really was no logical reason to give Plagueis false information. "Where do they operate, and who is their leader?"

"Black Sun is currently operating in the Unknown Regions, to avoid interference from the Galactic Alliance and the Imperial Remnant. Their current leader is a Falleen woman named Lady Katana," Gardulla the Elder told Darth Plagueis in her disgusting wet, rubbery voice. "She is rumored to be the daughter of the Dark Prince Xizor."

"The does make sense," Darth Plagueis agreed. But the undead Sith Lord could not help but wonder if there was more to this story. Even with their incredibly powerful pheromones, it would still be quite a feat what this woman had accomplished. But if she could use the Force...

Darth Plagueis had heard that his former apprentice, Darth Sidious had possessed an amazing ability to manipulate people with the Force. The dark man was somewhat proud of his former student, despite what a fool he'd proven himself to be. Despite how close he may have come to ruining the Grand Plan.

"In return for your cooperation I believe I can provide you with some assistance," Darth Plagueis continued. "You are currently engaged in a spice war with the Yaka, yes?" This conflict had the potential to erupt into an uncontrollable wildfire. At odds with the guided destruction, the controlled burn required by the Grand Plan.

"Yes. And they are devastating our profit margin. The Yaka steal many of our shipments, or destroy if they can't get the spice for themselves. Sometimes we are forced to destroy our own product so it doesn't fall into their hands. Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated.

"I can provide one of my colleagues, Darth Krayt, to help coordinate your forces against the Yaka." Plagueis would help the Hutts end this conflict, and they would be in the Siths' debt.

 **Unknown Regions**

Lady Katana could feel the subtle ripples in the Force, like a water strider moving on the surface of a pond. Tiny hairs on their feet enabled the small insects to walk upon the surface of the water, where they would hunt for their prey.

 _Prey._ That last word stuck out in her mind. Lady Katana had many enemies, a given for any leader of the Black Sun crime syndicate. But this one, apparently, could use the Force.

The Falleen woman reached out toward this unwelcome guest. And shuddered. It was as though death itself had come to stalk her. She shook her head. What superstitious rubbish. And yet, she could think of no other explanation.

Lady Katana reached out again, to locate this visitor aboard her ship. Death was inside one of the hangar bays. The Falleen woman accessed the appropriate camera feeds. She muttered a Falleen curse, for all she could get was static.

Katana frowned. If she made herself small in the Force, she might not be able to sense this marauder. That could make her even more vulnerable. A compromise, then. Make herself somewhat small. But no. She had barely sensed her visitor's arrival as it was. Shrinking her Force presence just the tiniest bit would make her blind to this phantom menace.

Lady Katana put her left hand around the hilt of her lightsaber, and silently walked out into the hallway. It would be much more difficult for her visitor to sneak up on her here.

 **There she** stood, not even knowing he was there. Darth Plagueis pressed the activation switch on his lightsaber, and the weapon _snap-hissed_ to life. The sound was repeated as Lady Katana activated her own weapon and spun toward her stalker. The two lightsabers buzzed and produced sparks as their crimson blades met.

Darth Plagueis could feel that this woman was terrified, but she did not let her fear control her. Instead, she fed it into the Force. And the dark side fell upon her, empowering her.

The pair of red blades continued to clash as the Falleen woman fought for her life. Plagueis was somewhat impressed by her swordsmanship. Something about the way she fought reminded Darth Plagueis of Emperor Palpatine. Of course, Lady Katana was far too young to have been trained by Darth Sidious. An apprentice of his, then.

Lady Katana raised her right hand; a sizable bolt of azure flame crackled toward Plagueis. He easily deflected it with his own bolt of onyx colored lightning. Despite her power there was no way she'd able to defeat her opponent.

Darth Plagueis continued gaining ground on Katana until she was nearly up against a wall. Seeing no hope for herself she suddenly charged at him. Plagueis deflected more bolts of Force lightning, and then raised his left hand, throwing Katana back into the wall and pinning her there. Plagueis flicked his left hand, slamming her left hand into the wall so hard that she dropped her lightsaber. The weapon seemingly flew into his left hand as he summoned it.

With Katana still pinned against the wall, Darth Plagueis walked toward her, both lightsabers humming as he twirled them. "Just do it!" Katana spat. Plagueis swung one of the lightsabers at her neck, but shut it off just before the blade could take her head off. Her released Katana and she stumbled slightly, but didn't fall.

"It was never my intention to kill you; this was merely a test. You are quite powerful in the dark side, but I can make you more powerful. Are you familiar with a Sith Lord named Darth Sidious?"

She nodded. "My mother told me of him; she was one of his apprentices. She was sent to Prince Xizor to bear his child, myself. Xizor was to be eliminated by my twentieth birthday, when I was to take leadership of Black Sun. And through myself, Darth Sidious would have control of Black Sun.

"But his apprentice Darth Vader killed Xizor a few years too early. And the subsequent death of Sidious allowed Black Sun to fall under... undesirable leadership, and our plans were delayed. It took nearly thirty years to finally assume leadership."

This woman could be quite valuable to the Grand Plan. Plagueis would use her, much as Sidious had done with Darth Maul. "Darth Sidious was once my apprentice," Darth Plagueis said. "Sidious was able to kill my body. But my spirit managed to live on, and I eventually gained enough power to retake physical form." He mentioned nothing of Abeloth. That she had given him the strength to assume a physical form. That would have made him seem far less powerful. And Plagueis felt it was best, for the time being, at least, that Katana not learn of such a creature.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Machinations

 **46 ABY: _Poison Moon_ : Border of Chiss Ascendancy **

Darth Plagueis, his head hidden within the hood of his robe, turned toward Lady Katana. "I will require you to leave Black Sun for a time. It will be a test for the organization, to determine their true strength. If they crumble in your absence, it will be a sign that they are not strong enough for our purposes. And in that case we will have to make other arrangements."

Katana nodded, showing her understanding. She would hate to lose Black Sun. She and her mother had worked so very hard, and for so many years to wrest control of the organization. Katana's mother had even given her life so that she could become the head of Black Sun. To lose the crime syndicate now would be devastating.

 _The Dark Man's plans are far more import than my own ambitions and desires._ But Darth Plagueis seemed to have faith that Black Sun would prevail.

"I understand that you are familiar with the world of Qoribu," Plagueis went on.

"Yes," the Falleen woman responded. "It is orbited by fifty five moons, some of which are home to a semi-sentient insectoid race called the Killiks. The sentients brought into their collective, or hive mind, are known as Joiners. Is that your intent for me?" she asked.

Darth Plagueis did not sense worry from this woman, only curiosity and a desire to understand her master's plans. "Not precisely. A Joiner is more or less _controlled_ by the nest. Whereas my purpose is for you to be in control of _them_."

Katana nodded. "The need of the Chiss to prevent another Swarm War will overshadow their concern for Black Sun, and will also require more of their resources."

"Correct," Plagueis said. "A Nest has recently been discovered on Qoribu's moon of Nrogu. Various minerals, and the Nest's reclusive nature have kept them hidden from detection. That is where you will be going. The Jedi will, naturally, send a team to investigate this situation. I expect they'll be passing by Qoribu."

The Dark Man turned to Darth Blight. "You will intercept them, and prevent them from making their rendezvous with the nearby Chiss fleet. But rather than kill them, I want you to force the Jedi down to Nrogu's surface. Once there they will be made into Joiners." Plagueis turned back to Katana. "With your strength in the Force, and the pheromones produced by the Falleen, I trust they will fall under your control. But if not..."

"I shall kill them," Katana finished, with a hint of a smile.

"Indeed," the Dark Man said, nodding his head in approval. Of course, this was all to give Thorden a Swarm War to avert, to make him into a hero, so that his rank would be elevated. Just as the failed invasion of Naboo was intended to help raise Palpatine to the position of Supreme Chancellor. Darth Plagueis cared neither what became of Black Sun nor Lady Katana. They were simply a means to an end.

Darth Plagueis gestured toward a small table, upon which rested a pair of datapads. "I suggest you both review your respective tasks in more detail before you depart. I have other matters which need attending." As the Dark Man turned and headed toward a TIE Defender which would take him to his destination, he heard both Sith activating their lightsabers. Both weapons clashed as his apprentices began a sparring match. A practical use of their time, since they were not required to depart immediately.

 **Chiss Ascendency**

Darth Plagueis turned toward Thorden's wife, Chaf'aria'nagaru, pinned to the wall by the Force, with several sharp cooking knives hovering about. With scarcely an effort of will, the Sith Lord could send all those knives slicing into her small body.

The Chiss woman's gaze shifted between the knives and the robed man without a face. Plagueis could see her fear yellowing her Force presence. "Your husband is a very special man," he said, as though he were having a casual conversation. "He has the potential to save trillions of lives. You should be very proud of him. And you should take comfort in the fact that the events which will soon transpire are for the greater good."

"What in the Void is this!" Thorden demanded angrily, as he rushed into the house, his lightsabers humming. Plagueis cast his empty gaze on Thorden, and saw the dark side of the Force flowing around the Chiss fleet commander as a literal fog, tinged by the red of his rage. Thorden's hatred for the undead Sith Lord, fueled by the death of his beloved, would allow him to reach his full potential.

"I think you know," Darth Plagueis responded. "You need to devote yourself fully to your appointed task." And a relative of Thrawn could not be seen to have any sort of connection to the Empire. Not if they were to have any hope of leading the Chiss Ascendancy.

"That doesn't mean she has to die," Thorden pleaded. "I can erase her memory. She won't remember me. And I'll never come back."

Plagueis shook his head. "But over time it would all be undone by your son. She would eventually remember that you're the boy's father. Nor could we simply take the child away. The child is too much a part of her life for that to work." The Sith Lord brought a tiny bit more of his attention to the knives, causing them to move closer. One of them scraped against Fariana's cheek, drawing a small amount of blood, and a soft whimper. "I can do it for you," the Dark Man suggested, as another of the knives dug into her shoulder. "But it will be slow. Painful. Or you can do it, however you like. The choice is yours."

"Why are you doing this?" Thorden asked with a hateful edge to his voice, one which made Plagueis proud.

"It is a test, to see if you'll be able to do what's necessary."

Darth Plagueis allowed the knives to clatter to the floor as Thorden walked over to his wife, and held her one final time. The Sith Lord stood at what he considered a respectful distance as Thorden kissed her and then ended her life.

And then Thorden's son, Thraes, walked out of his room, and into the hallway. The boy began wailing upon seeing his mother's corpse being laid onto the floor. Darth Plagueis rushed over to Thraes. It was within his power to kill the child with little more than a thought.

But that was not the Dark Man's intent. Thraes would eventually remember what had happened here. His hatred of his father would push him to the dark side. And Darth Plagueis still needed some leverage over Thorden. Some means by which to manipulate the man.

"Wait!" Thorden shouted.

The Sith Lord turned toward his apprentice. "The child saw what you did," he said darkly.

"He doesn't have to remember," Thorden begged. "You can't take my son from me, too. I'll have no reason to help you."

"Wipe his memory, then," Plagueis said, feigning disinterest. "But he must never learn what happened here. If he does…"

"I know," Thorden growled.

"We must go, before he wakes up," Plagueis prompted.


	7. Chapter 7

**45 ABY: The Bubble: Base Prime**

Sith Saber Vestara Khai wished it could have been Ben Skywalker, who was running through the corridors of Base Prime, carrying her. She still could not help but want to be with him. Could not help but be in love with a man she knew could never have. It was a dream, forever out of her reach.

Instead it was the Mandalorian woman, Mirta Gev, who carried Vestara to her salvation. The Sith Saber could not honestly say that she counted the Mandalorian as a friend. But a friend was not what she needed at the moment. She simply needed someone to help her get off this cursed monolith.

The Sith Saber could sense their mode of transportation beyond one of the airlocks. Vestara drew upon the Force, and focused the energy on the airlock's activation panel. prompting the door to slide away into the wall. Vestara couldn't help but crack a near microscopic smile at the revulsion that briefly wafted from Mirta Gev's Force presence.

It was the most horrible thing Mirta Gev had ever seen. It looked as though someone had gouged out the eye of a colossal cyclops, and then stuck wings on said eye. But if that thing was their way out of here, she didn't give a dang how ugly it was.

"This is _Ship_ ," Vestara said.

The Sith Meditation Sphere turned ninety degrees, and a ramp folded down. Without hesitation, Mirta ran up the ramp. She took a split second to look around as the ramp closed back up. There did not appear to be any seats. The floor looked like some sort of roughly hewn stone. It wouldn't be very comfortable to sit...

"It's softer than it looks," Vestara said, guessing at the Mandalorian's thoughts.

Mirta set the injured Sith Saber down at the back of the cockpit, and sat down beside her. The floor felt like a regular seat cushion. "Where are we going?" she asked, as _Ship's_ rapid acceleration gently pushed her back into her 'seat'.

"Away from here to begin with," Vestara said wearily. Part of the Sith Meditation Sphere seemed to become transparent as Vestara looked in the direction of Base Prime, in time to glimpse a great explosion tearing the place apart.

"We could go to my grandfather, Boba Fett," Mirta suggested. "He would be grateful to you… and your friend for saving my life. You could get medical attention. And the Mandaloreans would make a powerful ally, especially since the Jedi and their friends tried to kill me."

"Tell _Ship_ where to find him, then. I must go into a healing trance." Almost as soon as Vestara had finished speaking, she was out cold. Mirta rolled her eyes as the younger woman's head slumped against her shoulder.

 **46 ABY: Near Qoribu**

A beeping sound from her R-9 astromech droid roused Tahiri Veila from her nap. The Jedi Knight glanced at the chronometer on one of her StealthX's screens. In a couple minutes she, and the three other Knights with her, would be dropping out of the gray emptiness of hyperspace, near the border of the Chiss Ascendancy.

The Chiss had stepped up security at the border over concerns of the apparently resurgent crime syndicate Black Sun. Their leader was a Falleen woman who claimed to be the daughter of the crime lord Prince Xizor. According to Ascendancy Intelligence the woman had gone missing several days ago. And chatter among certain members of Black Sun, who were being monitored, suggested that they blamed the Chiss for their leader's disappearance.

And also of concern was a freighter the Chiss had intercepted. The crew, consisting entirely of the insectiod Verpine, claimed to be working for Black Sun. An inspection of their cargo had revealed a wide assortment of weapons, including the Verpine-made shatterguns. And a waxy substance called membrosia. Membrosia was created by a semi-sentient insectoid species called the Killiks, and the black variety functioned as an intoxicant to most insectoid species. Only, this membrosia was red and about three and a half times more potent. The Killiks were obviously involved, and the Chiss were worried that this could result in another Swarm War.

And so the Chiss Ascendancy had summoned a team of Jedi to look into, and hopefully resolve the situation. The Jedi Knights were to rendezvous with the commander of one of the fleets patrolling the border. Mitth'ord'envar, or Thorden, a nephew of the infamous Grand Admiral Thrawn.

Tahiri, Seff Hellin, Yantahar Bwua'tu, and Kolir Hu'lya dropped out of hyperspace several kilometers away from the gas giant of Qoribu. "I remember this place," Tahiri said dryly, to herself. She'd become a Joiner with the Killiks during the crisis that had led up to the Swarm War. And she was not anxious to repeat it.

"Looks like we got something," commed the Bothan Jedi Kolir. "It _sort_ of looks like the _Millennium Falcon_."

Tahiri glanced at her sensor board. It was a YT-4900. The cockpit was above and between the mandibles, rather than on the right side. It was mostly a silver gray color. Dull, purplish lines radiated from the upper, and perhaps the lower laser turret. Tahiri felt a tingle at the base of her spine as the freighter came closer. She reached out toward the freighter but felt no one inside. She frowned. Whoever was in there must have been hiding themselves in the Force.

The entire universe suddenly felt as though it was spinning, in several directions at once, and Tahiri nearly vomited. Her StealthX was jinking and juking as her astromech began taking evasive maneuvers. A shower of sparks erupted, burning part of Tahiri's flight suit, and an alarm began screeching as the fighter began sustaining damage.

Tahiri could feel a darkness trying to suffocate her. She _pushed_ against it. And it subsided to the point where she could take back control of her StealthX. She glanced at her diagnostics screen. "Sithspawn," she hissed. Her hyperdrive was out, one of her engines was completely offline, and another was in the red. And if that wasn't bad enough, the shields were below half strength.

Tahiri brought her StealthX into a loop, and came out facing the YT-4900. If she was going to get vaped, perhaps she could at least take out their attacker and save her friends. Bursts of light splattered against her dying deflector shield, like bugs on a windshield, as the StealthX rocketed forward, on a collision course with the modified freighter. And then the YT-4900 suddenly broke off, and headed away from Qoribu's gravity well.

Tahiri's brow furrowed in confusion. "What in the Nine Corellian Circles of Hades!" she exclaimed aloud. The pilot of that freighter had had them. Why the Void...

Tahiri frowned and glanced over her instrument panel as her astromech began issuing a complex series of beeps and whistles. "What in the Nine Corellian Circles of Hades?" she repeated. Those last laser blasts had been at about one third power. She reached out toward her companions, and felt a similar sense of confusion from them. _They weren't trying to kill us._ So what were they trying to do? "I won't be making it to that rendezvous, will I?"

Her astromech gave two short beeps: a 'no'. Tahiri had a sinking feeling; the only nearby moon with a breathable atmosphere was Nrogu. As far as she knew, that world was uninhabited. Though the Killiks would be able to get to it, if they wanted to. "Bantha dung!" she muttered.

"I won't be making that rendezvous," Yantahar commed.

Tahiri's frown only deepened as Kolir and Seff gave her the same news. "This was all planned," she complained.

"Yeah," Seff commented. "I gathered that."

* * *

 **Alarms began** screaming as Tahiri's StealthX cut through Nrogu's atmosphere, like a dangerously dull knife. Gouts of flame gathered about the makeshift shooting star, prompting the canopy to darken, and the temperature inside the cockpit to become uncomfortable. The ship bucked as though it intended to throw her out through the canopy, into the thin, flaming atmosphere beyond.

The ship began to rattle fiercely, practically begging to be torn into oblivion. To be put out of its misery. Tahiri _reached_ out toward her StealthX in the Force, and imagined it holding together. Once the ship got her to Nrogu's surface, and not a dang second sooner, it could rest. Forever.

Reluctantly, as if doing so would make it harder for her to keep the StealthX from falling apart, Tahiri glanced at the diagnostics screen. She bit her lower lip upon noticing that another engine had gone into the red. Well at least she had one good engine... "Murdoch's blasted law!" she exclaimed as the forth engine, as though it intended to ruin her day and then some, went to orange. This day kept getting better and better.

The StealthX began to shake more violently, rebelling at Tahiri's efforts to keep it in one piece. She tightened her telekinetic grip on the ship and created a sort of tensor field throughout her body to prevent, or at least lessen, injury. The console suddenly began to spark and crackle, and Tahiri could suddenly smell something burning. She started coughing as acrid smoke began to sting her eyes and throat.

At the rate the StealthX was deteriorating, Tahiri wasn't sure if... She glanced at the altimeter; she was close enough now to Nrogu's surface... Oh, what the Void did it matter if she was going to be burned to a crisp? Tahiri would have to literally create a deflector shield around herself...

Like she had done about two decades ago. Tahiri had been caught in the blast radius of a bomb. She'd been unharmed, having subconsciously created a protective barrier of Force energy around herself. All she had to do was simply repeat that. If only she knew how. Of course she'd had no idea how to do it back then. So why would she need to know now? If she trusted in the Force, perhaps it would just happen.

Millions of imaginary needles began massaging her brain stem. Her subconscious not allowing her to waste time thinking, Tahiri yanked on the ejection lever. The cockpit canopy popped off and, in seconds, was gone from view. The pilot seat rocketed out from the falling StealthX on a short lived pillar of flame, and through an airborne river of flame. This river parted some around the seat, allowing Tahiri to pass through the fire relatively unscathed. Paneling on the back of the seat came away, fluttering off into the howling breeze, and a massive, tightly packed sheet of fabric billowed out into the wind.

A great wind caught the parachute, yanking Tahiri upward. And she drifted, relatively slowly, down toward the surface of Nrogu, underneath a great fabric jellyfish, while the StealthX continued on its collision course with the planet's crust, disappearing from view.


	8. Chapter 8

**_Jade Shadow_**

"Wait," Ben Skywalker said. "You kissed Aunt Leia."

His father, Luke Skywalker, frowned. "It was more like she kissed me."

"That's not much better," Ben commented, shaking his head in amusement, and trying not to burst out laughing.

"We didn't know we were related," Luke went on, somewhat defensively. "This conversation never happened," he said, in mock sternness.

A mischievous smirk took possession of Ben's face as he looked at his father. Luke had seen that look before, when Ben was up to something. "Not as long as you promise to never do anything to embarrass me ever again."

Luke frowned. "Blackmail," he muttered, feigning contempt. "You've been spending too much time with your Uncle Han. And what kind of parent would I be if I didn't embarrass my own son from time to time? That's what parents are supposed to do, you know."

Ben raised a doubtful eyebrow.

Luke smiled. "Need I remind you that there are plenty of planets in the area with a breathable atmosphere?"

"Dang it," Ben muttered. "This is worse than playing Uncle Han in Dejarik." He looked back at Luke. "And what kind of parent would threaten to abandon his son-"

"What kind of son would threaten to expose one of his father's darkest secrets?"

Ben shook his head. "Touche'."

"Like I said, 'this conversation never happ..." he trailed off as the comm began beeping. The Jedi Master tapped a button, and a grim blue face with red eyes rippled to life. "Aristocra Formbi," Luke greeted. Aristocra Chaf'orm'bintrano had become an ally of the Jedi. He had been instrumental in ending the Swarm War at the Battle of Tenupe over a decade ago.

"Hello, Grand Master Skywalker," Formbi said, sounding worried. "Fleet Commander Thorden has just informed me that the four Jedi you sent to rendezvous with his fleet never showed up. If you can spare someone else... Thorden will help organize a search for the missing Jedi. I would suggest more experienced Jedi." There was something peculiar in Formbi's tone when he mentioned Thorden's name. Almost as though the younger Chiss man was family.

Luke nodded slowly. He didn't want anymore Jedi disappearing. "My son and I, unfortunately, are otherwise occupied." They had been investigating recent sightings of a Sith Meditation Sphere named _Ship_. The sentient vessel had become the personal transport of Vestara Khai, Ben's former girlfriend. She'd almost killed Luke's grandniece and had been responsible for the deaths of almost thirty thousand people at the Sarnus Refinery the year before. It had become clear that she could not be saved from the dark side. And so the mission was to find and kill the Sith Saber.

Neither Luke nor his son had been looking forward to this inevitable mission, but it had, unfortunately, become necessary. Ben was going to need his father's support when the moment came.

The Jedi Master sighed. His sister Leia wasn't too far from the area. She and Han had just picked up their granddaughter Allana. Luke would hate to put them in any danger. And he didn't know if he'd be able to live with himself if anything happened to Allana. Not just because she was his grandniece, but also because she was supposed to, eventually, take the Throne of Balance, and become the Queen of the Jedi. If she didn't take the Throne, it would go to the Sith, and be taken up by a mysterious dark man, whoever the Void that was. If Allana died, the Jedi Order would be doomed. It wasn't the easiest decision, and it didn't help that there wasn't much time to make it.

 ** _Millennium Falcon_**

Allana Solo's pet nexu, Anji, purred happily as the girl stroked her head. "Well," she responded, "on the surface it seems like a good thing that the Hutts have gained the upper hand. It means that the spice war with the Yaka will end sooner. But the fact the Hutts started winning so suddenly means someone's probably helping them. It could be the Sith for all we know."

"That's right," Leia said.

"So it might _not_ be a good thing," Allana concluded. "If the Sith really are helping the Hutts, then they must be allies. So then the end of this spice war could actually be a bad thing." She looked, sympathetically, at her grandmother. "And you had to deal with this kind of thing all the time when you were Chief of State," she added.

"It was usually a lot worse," Han commented with his trademark crooked grin. "She had to deal with politi..." He trailed off and scowled as his wife delivered a playful punch to his shoulder. "Relax, sweetheart. I wasn't calling you a politician." He looked conspiratorially at Allana. "I hate sleeping on the couch," he whispered.

Leia rolled her eyes. "Well, just keep it, then. Sometimes you're a bad influence."

Han shrugged. "What would you expect from a scruffy nerfherder smuggler?"

Allana rested her head in her hand and sighed. "Should I go take a walk with Anji while you two flirt?"

Leia looked over at her husband. "Let's wait until after she goes to bed."

"Looks like we're the only grownups here," she whispered to Anji. The massive feline mewed softly, as though in agreement with the girl.

The comm suddenly buzzed to life. Han reached over to the dejarik board, which doubled as a holonet terminal. Holographic renderings of Luke and Ben's faces materialized above the game board. Greetings were exchanged, and then Luke's expression turned serious.

"What's wrong?" Leia asked.

"Tahiri and the others never met up with Fleet Commander Thorden," Luke replied.

"They were supposed to come out of hyperspace near Qoribu," Leia recalled with a frown. "Unless there was someone waiting for them..."

"Maybe Black Sun figured it out somehow," Luke said with a shrug. "Formbi says he and Thorden can help put together a search effort, if they have a Jedi or two to work with."

"Or two," Allana repeated. "Well, it can't more dangerous than any of our other adventures."

"I've learned never to say stuff like that," Ben cautioned, eliciting a scowl from Allana.

"We're far enough away that we can completely circumvent Bigbugistan," Han commented. As a younger man he'd had a rather ghastly experienced with large insectoids. And of course, it would just be stupid to walk into the same sort of ambush or whatever as Tahiri and the other Jedi on her team.

"We'll do it," Leia said, just a bit reluctantly. Tahiri was almost like a daughter to her and Han, and would have eventually become their daughter-in-law, had their son Anakin not been killed in the Yuuzhan Vong War.

 **Nrogu**

Tahiri came to with a peculiar, somewhat familiar fogginess in her mind. She opened her eyes; her vision was a bit fuzzy at first, but soon cleared up. She was lying on the ground, in a large cavernous space. With a number of giant, dark insectoids moving about. Killiks. On Nrogu. Something, or someone, had hidden a whole nest from her perception.

Tahiri groaned. Their attacker had counted on her and the others surviving, in hopes that the Killiks would turn them into Joiners. She'd been a Joiner once before. Perhaps, since she knew the warning signs better, she'd be better able to resist their influence. Or maybe she'd be more vulnerable because she'd been part of a Nest before. Tahiri hoped to the Force it was the former. Being a Joiner once was more than enough.

Tahiri quickly examined herself in the Force, like a ship's diagnostics systems. Some bruising and pulled muscles. Nothing major; she was barely in the yellow. She reached toward her waist, and frowned

when she didn't feel her lightsaber. Of course they have removed it. Tahiri couldn't fault the Killiks for their caution, though she could still be annoyed.

Tahiri reached out toward the others, sifting through the muted tangle of semi-sentient life forces. There seemed to be something... off about them. A subtle, yet profound tension. The sort that might exist between different ethnic groups. Tahiri frowned. She only saw the large, dark Killiks. There must have a different sub species somewhere in the nest.

Tahiri sighed; she'd deal with that later, once she'd found Seff, Kolir, and Yantahar. She easily located Seff, but she couldn't find the two Bothan Jedi. That didn't necessarily mean Kolir and Yantahar were dead. If they were at the other end of the nest or something, then perhaps their Force presences had simply gotten 'lost' among all the others. Or maybe they'd already been made into Joiners.


	9. Chapter 9

**Nrogu**

Seff Hellin awoke with a peculiar sort of fogginess in his mind. He vaguely recalled some sort of crash, accompanied by a wailing alarm. And then, nothing. Seff's head began pounding as his mental haze cleared. The crash seemed to have given him a mild concussion.

He turned his head to the side as he sensed a familiar presence approaching. "Tahiri," he said, as the green eyed blond woman sat down beside him. Parts of her flight suit were scorched or burned, and she had a few scrapes, but nothing serious.

"Hey, Seff. I'm glad you're alright. More or less." Seff did a quick evaluation, and found that his lower left leg was quite sore. "I'll help you up."

"Thanks," Seff said. He felt a pain in his side, and winced a bit. "Cracked a rib or two, I guess," he responded to Tahiri's concern. He glanced at his leg once he was sitting. Part of the flight suit had been ripped off, and then wrapped around his lower leg, as a makeshift bandage. There was something yellowish and sticky under the bandage. It smelled sort of sweet. Seff sighed as he looked around at the massive, blackish insects moving about. They were in a Killik nest. "Great," he muttered. "Bugs."

"You shouldn't use that word around them," Tahiri said, with a slight frown.

"Sorry," Seff said.

"The Nest is called Protomotorp," Tahiri said.

That gave Seff pause. _She already knows their name._ Perhaps, because she'd been a Joiner before. That certainly did not help matters. He was silent a few seconds. "Do you know what happened to Kolir and Yantahar, by any chance?" he asked slowly, a bit afraid of what the answer might be."

Tahiri shook her head. "In all these life forces, if they're somewhere else, I can't sense them."

"So they might have crashed... landed near a different area of the nest." Considering that he and Tahiri had been separated when they'd woken up, it did make sense. But then, why hadn't Tahiri been able to sense the others? Seff looked around at the giant insects, with visible unease.

"I hope so," Tahiri said, sounding rather doubtful.

Seff flexed his injured leg, experimentally, and grumbled, wishing he hadn't. "Looks like I still got some more healing to do."

"Yeah," Tahiri agreed. "We both do. I'll help you back down."

* * *

 **Seff woke** up with Tahiri lying beside him. There seemed to be something 'different' about her. They were good friends, and Seff would be lying if he said she wasn't pretty. That had been as far as his feelings had gone. But now he found her stunningly beautiful...

The bugs... Killiks. His current feelings for Tahiri weren't real. They were a product of the Nest's influence. _They've already got us._ Could it really have started to happen so soon?

He slowly managed to sit up. There was still some pain, but it was much more manageable. Seff found himself looking at Tahiri once more, finding her to be rather adorable. His eyes drifted over to the scars on her forehead. The ones she'd received decades ago when she'd been in the captivity of the Yuuzhan Vong. He thought they were beautiful.

Tahiri found Seff tracing his finger along the scars on her forehead. She was instantly confused; she should have wanted to slap his hand away. But Tahiri actually found it to be sweet.

She frowned upon realizing that the Killiks were already getting to her. _They've already got me._ So then, having been a Joiner before made her more vulnerable.

 **Chiss Ascendancy**

Allana Solo felt a mix of excitement and apprehension as the _Millennium Falcon's_ boarding ramp lowered, and then gently thumped to the flight deck of a massive hangar bay. She'd never met the Chiss before, or been aboard one of their ships. Well, that last part wasn't entirely true. Uncle Jag had let her sit in his Clawcraft once.

A number of Chiss guards, armed with Charrics, took position to either side of the ramp as Allana and her grandparents exited the Corellian freighter. Allana found their demeanor, or lack thereof, to be a bit unnerving. Yes, she was quite used to the formality and discipline of Hapan royalty. But these Chiss didn't even seem to have any emotions. She knew that they did, but they were trained to keep all emotion to themselves.

A Chiss Fleet Commander, flanked by a pair of guards, met the Solos near the bottom of the ramp. "Welcome aboard the _Star Dragon_ ," he said, with a slight bow. He extended his hand to Leia. "You may call me Thorden."

Allana felt strangely threatened by Thorden. It had nothing to do with the fact that he was the nephew of the infamous Grand Admiral Thrawn. He seemed to have his eyes on her. As though he were evaluating her. And he seemed to be struggling with something. Allana hoped the two weren't connected.

And then Thorden tore his gaze away from her. Allana sensed relief, and then guilt. The man felt horrible about something, and she felt a little sorry for him. She brushed her grandparents in the Force, and was glad to feel a healthy amount of suspicion from them.

Allana had learned to be on her guard, even in situations where it didn't seem necessary. She and her grandmother both had their lightsabers, and her grandfather had his old DL-44 blaster. The fact that the Chiss hadn't inquired about weapons seemed to be a good sign. Of course that didn't mean that they weren't still up to something.

Thorden and his guards led the Solos into an office; the guards remained outside the door. The remaining adults discussed the situation with the Killiks and their connection to Black Sun. And the fact the team of Jedi led by Tahiri Veila was most likely on one of Qoribu's moons. Allana found it both interesting and boring.

Leia was about to open her mouth to speak, but hesitated. There was something off about this man. She didn't want to tell him too much. She resisted the urge to shake her head. Thorden couldn't be involved with Sith. _He has about as much Force potential as Han._ "The Swarm War came about because of the interference of a pair of Sith."

Thorden nodded. "Lomi Plo and Welk."

"That's correct," Leia said, somewhat impressed. "A similar thing might be happening now."

Thorden frowned. "So, this has the _potential_ to be as bad as the Swarm War."

"It does," Leia said. There was something odd about the way Thorden had said 'potential'. There was an almost imperceptible undertone of confidence. As though he did not quite believe the situation would deteriorate to that extent. He must have had something planned, then. Or knew of someone who did. "What do you intend to do with the Killiks?"

"We would prefer to have the Jedi returned to the Order peacefully, if possible," Thorden responded. "But if there are Sith involved, then they must be dealt with."

 ** _Star Dragon_** **: Orbiting Qoribu**

Han Solo groaned inwardly as he stared out at the orange gas giant of Qoribu. He knew that, somehow, the universe would conspire to get him down to one of its moons. Down to Bigbugistan.

Sensing her husband's discomfort, Leia placed a gentle arm on Han's bicep. "I'll keep you safe, sweetie." She smiled faintly upon seeing him roll his eyes in the reflection of the transparisteel viewport.

Leia looked down at the small datapad in her hand. On its screen was a list of Qoribu's inhabited moons. Those at the top were the most likely locations of the missing Jedi. The crew of the _Star Dragon_ had failed to locate any of the X-wings or other equipment the missing Jedi had brought with them, so this was the best option.

The sick feeling in Leia's stomach only worsened with each moon she examined in the Force. The life forces of the Killiks were difficult to extinguish from one another. And the Jedi could be lost among any of the nests.

Leia was worried about what Thorden would do. Would he make some sort threats? Or send his forces down to search the moons? She sighed. Neither of those was a good option. But what other options were there?

"There is more to this than we are seeing," Thorden mused. He turned to Leia. "If there are Sith behind this, then I imagine they'd try to deceive us."

"We look where we don't think they'll be," Han muttered.

"We need a list of Qoribu's uninhabited moons," Leia said as the proverbial glowpanel went on.


	10. Chapter 10

A Change In Plans

 ** _Sarlagesus_**

Thorden sat quietly in the pilot's seat of his custom freighter as the vessel screamed silently through a void almost as empty as his soul. He had just murdered the love of his life, and abandoned his son. Darth Plagueis, who sat just as quietly, in one of the rear seats, hadn't given him a choice. But still, Thorden loathed himself. He wanted to die. He could attack Plagueis, and force his master to kill him. _No. Then there'd be nothing keeping that dianoga from murdering my son._

"I know that you hate me. I can both feel and see it in your Force aura. It is necessary for you to be able to hate, as you will need this ability for your next task." Darth Plagueis pulled a small datacard from a pocket in his robe. He handed it to his apprentice.

Thorden placed it into a port, and frowned at the resulting holoimage. The little girl was adorable. Perhaps nine or ten, with a little button nose and long reddish hair. "You can't expect me to kill her. She's just a child."

"And so is your son. And he's even younger and more innocent. I did not have to let him live, and I am beginning to wonder if that was a mistake. You can save the girl, and plunge the galaxy into unending war, or you can save your own son, and save the galaxy. You killed your wife."

"You gave me no choice."

"And you have little choice now. If you could kill the woman you loved, then you can kill this child. She means nothing to you. I have instilled in you hatred. Use it. Hate this girl for what she will do to the galaxy if she is allowed to live. Hate her for the trillions who will die. Hate her because if she lives, Thraes dies."

But Thorden knew it was wrong. It would be murder. He was done with murder. But then Plagueis would murder his son. The girl, as precious as she was, was _not_ his child. "You're a monster."

Plagueis nodded. "Sometimes a monster is just what the galaxy needs."

 ** _Star Dragon_**

Thorden met Leia Organa Solo, along with her husband Han and their granddaughter, Allana. "Welcome aboard the _Star Dragon_ ," The Chiss Fleet Commander said, bowing slightly, and extending his hand to Leia. "You may call me Thorden."

Thorden brought his attention to Allana as Leia made the introductions. It would be quick. All it would take was a thought, not even a hand gesture, and her neck would snap. She'd be dead before she knew what had happened. And the galaxy would be saved. Taking care to mask his true nature, he began to draw on the Force. He concentrated it, and imagined a targeting reticle around the child's neck. Saw his pointer finger on the trigger. He saw that finger flex. Just one more tiny movement and…

Thorden took his finger off the trigger. And allowed the Force energy he'd gathered to dissipate. He would not murder this little girl. He could not bring himself to hate her. But it had to be done. If it wasn't...

Thorden reached out to his son. And to his surprise, there was someone else with him. Two people. They were quite a bit different from Plagueis. They lacked that certain darkness, and they had... compassion. _They must be Jedi._ Jedi did not murder children. They would make sure Thraes was safe. _Where is your leverage, you piece of garbage?_

But Plagueis was still right. The girl had to die. She didn't deserve to. But if she lived, she would destroy the galaxy. And then trillions of people who didn't deserve to die would die. Their deaths would be on Thorden's hands. Still, he couldn't bring himself to do it, but perhaps he didn't have to.

 **Korriban**

Darth Plagueis still was unable to feel even the slightest of ripples in the Force. The telltale signs that the future Queen of the Jedi was dead. He should have killed the girl himself. Yes, it would certainly have resulted in him revealing himself to the Jedi. But that would have been such a small sacrifice for killing a child who most certainly would kill the galaxy.

Plagueis had threatened to kill Thorden's son, Thraes, if he failed to complete his task. The undead Sith Lord had sincerely hoped for his apprentice to prove himself worthy, as Sidious had not.

And now Plagueis had a dilemma. He could see Thraes serving a purpose in the future, but letting him live would send the wrong message to Thorden. _I must not be seen to go back on my word._ Darth Plagueis would have frowned had he possessed a mouth.

The Sith Lord reached out toward Thraes, but could not find him. Someone, it seemed, had taken the boy. He could let the boy live, without appearing to... His interest became piqued when he sensed a peculiar light side residue where Thraes had been. Jedi. And with that Darth Plagueis began to see the boy's purpose. A thermal detonator, its chronometer counting down to zero. _The fools willingly drink my poison._

Darth Plageuis activated Korriban's secured comm system and set up a link with the _Sarlagesus_. After a few seconds a blue face with red eyes appeared. "I sense that the girl is still alive," Plagueis commented.

"It was too risky," Thorden explained. "If I had killed the girl, Leia Organa would certainly know that I had done it, and would certainly have killed me. I don't yet have the skill to beat her in combat. You'd have been without an apprentice, without a way to control the Ascendancy."

"Do not think for even a second that I cannot see through your poorly veiled lies," Plagueis said calmly but with a chilling edge that made a vibroblade seem duller than a drunken Gammorean. "You and your Ascendancy are expendable. And you are a Force forsaken coward. You lack the strength to do what is required of you. And the whole galaxy could very well burn because of it."

 ** _Sarlagesus_**

Despite the many light years which separated them, Thorden could still feel his Master's gaze boring deep into his soul. Searching out his innermost being. "The job will get done. I have contacted the Mandalorians to take care of it," Thorden said, as though reading from a holoprompter. He felt like a politician who never answered questions giving a speech he'd rehearsed.

"You had better hope your Mandalorians are up to the task," Plagueis warned.

"Or what?" Thorden scoffed.

"You must think your son is safe, among the Jedi." Darth Plagueis shook his head. "I will find him. And when I do..." the undead Sith Lord let the sentence remain unfinished.

"You're bluffing, you piece of garbage. You murder my son, and I'll do everything in my power to destroy..." Thorden trailed off as the holocomm signal went dead. And inside, he went dead. What if Plagueis hadn't been bluffing? What if the Mandalorians couldn't kill the girl?

 **Korriban**

Darth Plagueis killed the connection before Thorden could finish his tirade. Feeding the flames of the Chiss man's anger, and cutting him off before he could sufficiently vent his rage. _Let the pressure build, and harden his anger into diamond._ Thorden would serve the Dark Man whether he wanted to or not. Whether he knew it or not.


	11. Chapter 11

**_Jade Shadow_**

"...so Vestara shouldn't be too far..."

Ben's voice faded away as a horrible, nauseating darkness passed through Luke's Force perception. And then it was there, hovering before the Jedi Grand Master as a literal cloud of oily blackness. A chill spread throughout his entire body as this vile fog began to coalesce. This darkness was horrifyingly familiar. And yet, it was somehow...

"Dad?" asked Ben's concerned voice, pulling Luke out of his nightmarish vision. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Luke breathed. "Did you..."

"Feel something? I did," Ben said. "It was only there like a second, if that. And then it was gone."

"I saw an oily black cloud kind of coming together."

"Sounds like Abeloth," Ben commented.

"It does," Luke said with a sigh.

Ben frowned. "You don't sound convinced."

"It felt... a bit... off," Luke said slowly.

"Oh," Ben said. "Of..." He trailed off he saw his father staring off into space. Or the Force, rather.

"It think it might have come from this planet, here," Luke said, pointing to a small dot on the cockpit canopy. He tapped the dot, magnifying the image. The planet didn't even have a name.

"Who or whatever was there could be just hiding. They could be waiting for us," Ben warned.

"I don't think so. It was more like a residue. We need to go there, and figure out what happened."

* * *

 **Chiss Ascendancy**

His mother was there. But at the same time she was not there. This was what people called dead. It meant that the person was gone forever. He didn't want his mother to be gone forever. He wanted to cry, but he'd been crying for so long that his eyes had dried up.

* * *

 **Ben and** his father walked up to a decent sized log cabin. The front door had been reduced to thousands of tiny wooden splinters, a testament to a rage that could almost take physical form. Beneath this silent scream were other emotions. Mere whispers of confusion, sadness, and fear.

Ben felt a lump rise in his throat as he walked into the tragic scene in the living room. A young Chiss child sat on the floor beside a the dead body of a Chiss woman. The child turned his head to look at Ben and Luke. His eyes were puffy from crying. Ben saw himself, after he'd found his own mother murdered, in the child's little face. He felt his father place a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

Ben felt a matching sense of concern from his father at the strange darkness radiating from the boy. Dark side residue. Most likely from whoever had committed the horrible act. The little guy must have been here when... it had happened.

Ben walked over to the boy's mother. She was tiny, about the size of his cousin, Jaina. There was a single, rather clean, lightsaber wound through the left side of her chest, where her heart would be. Her hands were folded across her waist. It was as though the killer had cared about her.

Ben frowned in slight confusion at the cooking knives scattered about. One of them had a small amount of dried blood on the tip of the blade. And on the woman's cheek was a small, matching scratch. It didn't fit. Unless there had been two people. One who loved her, and one who did not.

"The kid's father was here with someone," Ben commented. "Probably his master. They probably used that knife, and threatened to 'use' the others if the father didn't kill her." It had been Jacen Solo's Sith master, Lumiya, who'd more or less forced him to murder Ben's mother.

"It was probably the father's master who tainted him," Luke said. "And I think that our 'not-Abeloth' might have been that master."

Ben frowned. "Poor kid. But if I was his age, and I saw something like Abeloth, I think I'd be a lot more traumatized. Unless the memory was repressed. Or wiped." He shook his head, then crouched down beside the child, and sent feelings of warmth and compassion to him. The boy gave him a helpless expression and walked over to him. Ben gently picked the small child up. The little boy seemed to know that he could trust Ben and his father. "I think he might be Force sensitive," Ben whispered.

Luke nodded. "He is. And after what this little guy's been through…"

"You're worried he could turn to the dark side," Ben said. "And since there isn't a full fledged Jedi Academy in the Ascendancy..."

"it would be wrong to just leave him here," Luke finished with a sigh. "He'll need to be around people who can understand what he'll be going through."

The child suddenly started squirming in Ben's arms, and turned around toward his mother. "She's dead," he said softly.

"I'm sorry," Ben said. He was a little surprised that the boy seemed to know basic. Though, it would certainly make communicating easier. "My mother died, too. My name is Ben. What's your name?"

The child frowned in confusion, as though he was trying to remember.

"It's okay if you don't remember," Ben said softly.

"Thrace," he said.

"Do you know who did this, Thrace?"

The little boy shook his head. "Can't remember." He was silent a couple seconds. "You're taking me away."

"It's not safe here," Ben explained.

"I hate this house. It's evil."

It saddened Luke to hear such a young child talk that way. He glanced at the small Chiss woman's hand, at the ring on her finger, as Ben started to walk out of the house with Thrace. Luke still had the ring he'd given Mara, and planned on giving it to Ben when he found that special girl. Thrace should have that opportunity, too. Luke stooped down, and removed the ring from her finger.

"With us going after Vestara," Luke said, "it won't be safe to bring Thrace with us. Since Han and Leia are, sort of, in the area I think they should take him. And if they get busy with something, Allana can look after him."

 **Nrogu**

Emperor Palpatine had begun to distrust the Dark Prince Xizor, worrying that the Falleen man had plans against his apprentice Darth Vader. And so Darth Sidious had begun planning Xizor's elimination. Of course that would have meant losing control of Black Sun.

And so the Emperor had sent one of his Hands, Lady Karina, to seduce Xizor and bear his child. Within a year Karina had given birth to a daughter, Katana, named after the mysterious fleet that had gone missing so many years ago. Palpatine and Karina would train the child in the ways of the dark side of the Force. When she was old enough, her lineage would be made known. And combined with some powerful Force manipulation, control of the crime syndicate would go to her. Black Sun under the direct control of a Sith. And by extension, Darth Sidious, himself.

The Emperor's apprentice, Darth Vader, was to eliminate Xizor. But unfortunately, Vader had killed the Falleen crime lord years too early. Thus, allowing Black Sun to fall under undesirable leadership. Another blow soon came with the death of Sidious. It had been rumored that Vader had been responsible.

Karina and her daughter fought for years to remove the current leadership. Assassinating certain individuals, and causing strife between others so that they might eliminate one another. After the removal of dozens of rivals and potential rivals, Katana's lineage was revealed, and she came to be the head of Black Sun in short order.

And then the Dark Man, one greater than Darth Sidious, had come to her. Had given her an even greater task.

The Dark Man had sent her to the moon of Nrogu, to take control of the moon's Nest. When the Chiss took notice, it would draw their attention away from Black Sun. The crime syndicate would hopefully survive Katana's absence, and use this opportunity to expand a bit. Katana did not understand exactly how this would work, but she trusted her new Master, the Dark Man.

The Dark Man had also promised to send Katana a number of Force users to turn into Joiners. And just hours ago he had delivered them...

Katana abandoned her train of thought, and pulled her perception inward a bit, as she sensed a Force presence probing the moon of Nrogu. But she remained partially outside herself to obscure the Force signatures within the Nest. It was true that Nrogu's unique composition should take care of that, but why take chances with such an important task?

* * *

 **Aside from** some bruising and cuts, Kolir Hu'lya and Yantahar Bwua'tu were unharmed. The pair was surrounded by a retinue of whitish Killiks, with a subtle opalescent quality. They walked upright on four legs, a bit like mantises. Their abdomens somewhat resembled fat tails. Long, serrated stingers curved along the undersides of the abdomens. Their antennae moved around constantly, almost nervously. Most of these Killiks had a Verpine shattergun strapped to one of their legs. On the rear end of each shattergun was some sort of bayonet.

The Killiks had been leading Kolir and Yantahar through a seemingly random set of passageways for close to an hour. The semi-sentient insects seemed intent on showing the two Bothan Jedi something. A glowing fungus suffused the tunnels with a very pale green, almost white, light.

Kolir could feel a peculiar, yet calming fogginess in her mind. And a light, but not uncomfortable, pressure in her temples. She wondered if the fungus could be partly responsible. Perhaps it was intended to lull people so that the Killiks could turn them into Joiners more easily.

The Killiks led the two, at last, to an enormous, domed cavern. There were large columns here and there to keep the roof up. Kolir didn't notice any excavation equipment, which meant these Killiks had somehow carved this space out with the bare 'hands', or what passed for them.

Kolir began to feel a strange, almost terrified sense of tension from the Killiks as the group traveled deeper into the cavern. It was as though Temnonmet had gone into enemy territory. The female Bothan frowned. _Temnonmet._ That must have been the name of the Nest. If she suddenly knew their name, it meant that she was already falling under their influence...

Kolir's blood went cold as she saw what Temnonmet was so afraid of. There were devils here. Large and dark. With horns protruding from their carapaces. They walked on two legs, using the other four as arms. And from their elbows and knees grew long, needle-like spines. Their faces were each adorned with two pairs of curved mandibles. The longer, upper pair sported three inward facing 'hooks' on each mandible, while the lower pair had two. Kolir had a horrific vision of a hapless Temnonmet struggling to escape from such a snare. These shadowy abominations had been murdering the Temnonmet. Feasting upon the innocent. _Protomotorp_ was the name of this demon.

A dozen or so of these devils approached the two Bothan Jedi and their comrades. Just like the victimized Temnonmet, these evil ones carried shatterguns sporting bayonets on the rear. Kolir reached for her lightsaber, and groaned upon not feeling it hanging at her belt. She noticed Yantahar shaking his head as he, too, found his own weapon missing. Temnonmet must have confiscated them, fearing the Jedi might side with the demons. _But they must know our allegiance, now._

Kolir was wondering why the two Nests weren't fighting when the group stopped at an apparent dead end. The Protomotorp began spitting up an yellow orange acid onto the wall. It steamed and sizzled as it softened the stone. And then Protomotorp and Temnonmet began to dig out a new passageway. But that still didn't quite explain why these two enemies were working together.


	12. Chapter 12

**_Millennium Falcon_**

"That meeting with Thorden was kind of weird," Allana commented.

"Yeah," Han agreed. "Even I could tell he was hiding something."

"It wasn't just that," Allana said. "He was staring at me. Like he was... studying me. It kind of scared me. And then he stopped. I think he felt bad about it. Like he was going to do something... bad, and then decided not to."

Leia sighed, unsure what to make of that. "He does know that you're the future Queen Mother of the Hapes Consortium. Or that you're supposed to be."

Allana's eyes widened slightly as she realized the implications. "He doesn't want me to be the Queen Mother. There are other people that want the throne... and he might be working with them."

Han's fist clenched slightly. "Well if he tries to do anything to you, I'll-"

Leia placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. "You know I'd beat you to it, sweetie."

Han shrugged. "I really don't care who does it. If he..." He trailed off as the ship's comm beeped. Luke and Ben Skywalker's faces materialized above the dejarik table.

* * *

 **Thrace stepped** out of the _Jade Shadow's_ airlock into the old, beat up looking ship. Ben said it was called the _Millennium Falcon_. It didn't look like a bird at all, but it did look like it could be a thousand years old. Or older. An old couple greeted him. The man's name was Han; he must have been about a hundred. The lady's name was Leia, but she wasn't quite as old.

"Welcome aboard the _Millennium Falcon,_ " Han said.

Thrace didn't understand why he seemed so proud of the ship. It looked like someone had gone to a junkyard and just put a whole bunch of junk together and called it a ship.

"You'll be safe here," Ben told Thrace. "There's a very dangerous person that we're looking for, and we don't want you to get hurt."

"Okay," Thrace said. He liked Ben and his father. They were very kind. They didn't know him, but they cared about him.

Then a girl walked toward him. She was very pretty. And her long hair was reddish. Thrace never even knew that hair could be that color. "Hi," she said softly. "My name's Allana. You must be Thrace."

The little boy nodded.

Allana saw Thrace looking around. "Would you like to see the ship?" She was curious about what the adults were talking about. But they could tell her later. Right now it was more important to give Thrace something to do. The poor little guy was overwhelmed, and he needed something to distract him. He nodded again.

* * *

 **"So you** don't think it's Abeloth," Han said, disappointed.

"Like I said, it felt... off," Luke said. "So it could be someone _like_ Abeloth."

Han groaned. "One was more than enough, Void blast it."

"And you think Thrace was tainted by this 'not-Abeloth'?" Leia asked.

Luke nodded. "We're gonna need to keep on eye on Thrace as he grows up. I don't know how this darkness is going to effect him." He waited briefly for someone to say something. "So how did that meeting with Thorden go?"

Han and Leia groaned in unison.

"That good," Ben commented.

"I could throw a Hutt farther than I trust him," Han said.

"Allana felt very threatened by him," Leia explained. "We all did. She said he was studying her. And he was struggling with... something. We don't know if maybe he wants someone else to take the Hapan Throne. But that doesn't really make... Could he know that Allana's going to be the Queen of the Jedi?"

"The Sith know," Ben said. "What if Thorden..."

"He didn't feel the least bit Force sensitive to me," Leia said.

"Well, he was hiding _something_ ," Han noted.

"People can hide Force sensitivity," Luke cautioned. "But non-Force users can work with Sith, too."

"We know Thrace's father's a Sith," Ben said. "And Thorden is a Chiss..."

Han groaned. "This whole thing smells worse than that bog with those mynocks."

"Don't remind me," Leia said.

"He could have killed Allana," Han said, sighing. "But..."

"Maybe, if Thorden is Thrace's father, he knows we found his son," Ben said. "This 'not-Abeloth' might have been using Thrace as leverage."

"So Thorden didn't want to kill her," Leia said. "If we're right about this, I don't think his master is going to be very happy."

"Maybe we can use that," Ben suggested. "I think Thorden might have gotten in... way over his head. That kind of happened to me with..." he trailed off. Everyone knew he was talking about his cousin, Jacen.

Luke sighed. "We'd have to tell Thorden what we know. And I don't know how he'll react when we do."

Han frowned. "I know you guys are looking for Vestara, but..."

"I know," Luke said. "I'll have to talk to him."

"And if Vestara comes after us," Han said.

"We stick together," Luke said. "I'm thinking Thorden won't want Sith around. And Vestara won't be going near a Star Destroyer."

* * *

 **"Being a** princess can be really boring at times," Allana was telling Thrace. They were sitting on the couch and, to Allana's slight surprise, he had snuggled up against her. But considering everything that had happened to him, it made sense.

Thrace didn't seem to be paying attention to her anymore. Allana looked at him to find that he had fallen asleep. She suddenly yawned, and realized that she was also tired. She'd gotten up early to meet him. Allana knew the adults would have plenty to talk about, and that Thrace would need a friend.

Han and Leia found Allana and Thrace asleep on the couch. Their granddaughter had an arm around the little Chiss boy. Leia picked up a small blanket and draped it over them. "Guess they're getting along pretty good," Han commented.


	13. Chapter 13

_**Millennium Falcon**_

"I think Thrace should be fine for now," Leia told Luke, glancing back at the couch.

Her brother nodded. "Allana seems to really care about the little guy." He frowned as something seemed to occur to him.

"Oh no," Leia grumbled. "I hate when you do that."

Luke sighed. "What if Allana wasn't the target? Or at least not the main one."

"You think it might be you."

"At the moment I'm more of a threat to the Sith than Allana," Luke explained. "What if finding Thrace, and Thorden not killing Allana was all a ploy to get me to speak with Thorden?"

"'Not-Abeloth' could be waiting for you," Leia said. "So, maybe we can't work with Thorden."

Han frowned. "I'm betting Nrogu's a trap, too." As discussed earlier, before he and Leia had gone to check on Allana and Thrace, it had been revealed that Nrogu had been the closest to Qoribu when Tahiri and the other Jedi had gone missing. "There's no evidence Tahiri and her team are even there. And now that I think of it, it kind of seemed like Thorden was manipulating us into deciding to go down to Bigbugistan. He could take us all out."

Leia gently placed a hand on her husband's bicep. "We won't let that happen, Han," she said, realizing he was more worried about everyone else than himself. She turned back to Luke. "But if Nrogu isn't a trap, and Tahiri, Seff, Yantahar, and Kolir really are there..."

Luke blew out his breath. "Then we have to go. If there is a Killik nest hidden there... The longer we wait, the harder it'll be to bring them back. And Tahiri's been a Joiner before. We'll all go down there together."

"Knew you were gonna say that," Han mumbled.

 **Nrogu**

Tahiri and Seff followed the Protomotorp into a large, hollowed out cavern, with some of the stone remaining to act as support columns. A feeling of dread came over Tahiri as she spotted a number of pale Killiks. They had vicious looking stingers curled up against the undersides of their abdomens. As though these parasites sought to hide their true wickedness. She caught herself imagining hordes of these wretched Temnonmet overwhelming Protomotorp, plunging their dagger-like stingers into their victims.

Protomotorp led the two Jedi onward, to where a new passageway was being excavated for the growing colony. Tahiri's blood went cold when she saw Yantahar and Kolir among the Pale Ones. The two Bothan Jedi were using the Force to move large chunks of stone out of the way. It horrified Tahiri to see how comfortable they'd become with these murderous parasites. Had her friends become lost?

Tahiri somehow knew that Temnonmet's numbers were, once again, growing at a dangerous rate. Once again, the parasites were planning to commit massed murder. Killing even Protomotorp's larvae. Soon, Protomotorp would be forced to reduce their numbers. But they waited. Many of their young were molting, and would soon become soldiers. Tahiri hoped to the Force that the Pale Ones didn't decide to attack before then. Tahiri brought her attention back to Yantahar and Kolir. She didn't want to kill...

... her friends. But Kolir knew Tahiri and Seff were lost. They belonged to the demons. Soon the devils would move forward with their plans of genocide. Temnonmet did not yet have the numbers to save themselves. Many of their soldiers were still maturing. Their time was running short. If Temnonmet waited too long...

"The red membrosia," Yantahar suddenly said, as he moved another block of stone to the ground.

Kolir turned toward the male Bothan. "It's a cry for help. Temnonmet injects something into the membrosia to turn it red."

Yantahar nodded enthusiastically. "To get the attention of the Chiss. And when they come to destroy the nest, we can just tell them what Protomotorp has been doing. They forced Temnonmet's... hand."

Kolir frowned. "I don't think the demons will wait for that to happen. We don't have time to wait for the Chiss."

* * *

 **"The Pale** Ones are willing to force the Chiss to destroy the whole nest, just to murder Protomotorp," Seff said, disgusted. "The parasites have to know that the Chiss will kill them, too."

"Willing to destroy everything, including themselves, to eradicate their enemy," Tahiri agreed. "Sounds just like the Sith."

"How the Void could Kolir and Yantahar..."

"They were deceived," Tahiri told him sadly. "You know what we have to do. I wish their was another way. But you know they'll never listen."

 ** _Millennium Falcon_**

"I want you and Thrace to stay on the _Falcon_ ," Leia said.

"That won't be a problem," Allana said. "I think grandpa would like to stay, too.

Han looked at Leia hopefully. His wife shook her head. "Sorry, Han. We might need your help." She turned back to Allana. "If something happens to us…"

"You want me to take the bird and go to Hapes Prime," Allana finished. "And Artoo will meet us there in the _Shadow_."

"That's right, sweetie," Leia told her granddaughter, before hugging her. "And take care of Thrace."

"I will." Allana watched her grandparents leave, and then turned to Thrace. She could tell he was scared, but the little boy was handling it pretty well. Allana was trying not to be scared, because it would probably make Thrace more scared.

"How do we become small?" he asked.

Allana noticed, for the first time, that Thrace had a subtle Imperial accent. It was a little odd, but there were more important things happening right now. "It's more like we have to pretend we're small. I'll tell you what to do."

"Okay." Thrace didn't understand why they had to do this or what was going on, but he trusted Allana. She cared about him. And she seemed to know what she was doing.

 **Nrogu**

Luke and Ben met up with Han and Leia under a rock outcropping large enough to conceal both the _Falcon_ and the _Shadow._ It was a slightly less than a mile from where Luke had sensed a brief, dark flicker. It wasn't nearly as dark as their 'not-Abeloth', which was relief. However, it did mean that there was someone else to be worried about.

Han groaned when the four came to a cave entrance. "I'm guessing there's an underground tunnel," Han muttered. "I hate underground tunnels."

"I don't think we need to worry about the tunnel collapsing," Ben assured his uncle. "Someone's trying to hide something here, right? If this tunnel collapses, the Chiss might wonder how it happened. Maybe they won't even care. But will however's hiding... whatever they're hiding want to take that chance?"

"Somehow I don't think that's what he's worried about, Ben," Leia said.

"Big bugs," Han said.

"Killiks," Ben corrected.

Han rolled his eyes, but resisted the urge to 'whatever'. "Just like the entrance to the first level of the Corellian Hells," he muttered.

The three Jedi activated their lightsabers, to act as glow rods, as the group ventured down into the cave. "I can barely sense a blasted thing through this... stone," Luke said.

"Pretty good place to hide something," Ben reiterated. "Or... to have someone try to sneak up on us. Maybe Mandos. They seem to like killing Jedi." Ben began to see a faint yellow green glow as he and his father led the group forward. "I'm kind of lichen this," he joked as he noticed the mossy growth in the tunnel.

Luke shook his head, but he couldn't blame his son for trying to lighten the mood. "It bodes well for someone being here."

* * *

 **"I don't** like this," Mirta Gev complained over the comm. "The sensors can't pick up a Void vaped thing. Can you..."

"No," Vestara replied with a sigh. "I think there's something blocking my Force perception. Probably whatever's blocking your sensors."

"This might actually be a good thing," Mirta said. "If we can't sense them, then they likely won't be able to sense us, either." Mirta said.

"They won't know we're here," Vestara agreed. "But, Han and Leia are tricky. Look what happened at Base Prime. They had help, but still..."

"Well, one of these days they won't be so lucky," Mirta commented as the tra'kad, which she shared with twelve other Mandalorians, and the Sith Meditation Sphere approached the coordinates their mysterious contact had provided. The tra'kad's visual scanners showed the mouth to what appeared to be a subterranean tunnel. The two vessels landed some distance away. If their quarry exited the tunnel, they wouldn't be able to see the ships. But the pair of Mandalorians chosen to remain aboard the tra'kad, and man its sensors, would see them.

Vestara leapt out of the Meditation Sphere, and was soon joined by Mirta Gev and ten other armored Mandalorians. Armed with an assortment of blasters and swords, one of which was a red bladed lightsaber, the group headed into the abyss.


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: I recently learned that Verpine shatterguns are nearly silent. Thus the shatterguns depicted here are less advanced, cheaper variants.**

 **Nrogu**

A number of armed Temnonmet led Yantahar and Kolir to the demons' nursery. Several of the vile Protomotorp stood guard at the entrance. The devils were thrown against the wall as a pair of lightsabers burned to life. The Temnonmet opened fire, while the two Bothan Jedi moved in. Yantahar and Kolir hacked and slashed at the Protomotorp, and in moments the demons were either dead or dying. A trio of the Temnonmet remained outside the entrance, while the rest of the group stepped over and around the fallen Protomotorp and into the nursery.

Kolir's lightsaber moved, seemingly of its own accord, sparking and buzzing as it crashed into another lightsaber blade. Seff's weapon swung wildly as the human attempted to get past her defenses. Kolir's approach was more controlled, relying on minimal movements to keep his lightsaber at bay. While this strategy increased her risk of being backed into a corner it also meant she would tire more slowly.

Yantahar pushed aside his initial instinct to come to his fellow Bothan's aid. He knew Tahiri had to be somewhere nearby. Through their hive mind Temnonmet was already aware of his concern so he did not need to broadcast any sense of warning. Yantahar felt one of the Killiks beside him suddenly become lifeless. He spun around, and then leapt into the air to avoid a beheading slash. They circled each other like predators, waiting for their prey to slip up. Neither wanting to strike prematurely, but not wanting to strike too late, either. And then, at the same instant, both charged. Lightsabers clashed in a buzzing shower of sparks.

* * *

 **The new** Joiners were going to kill each other. Their arrival had emboldened the two halves of the Nest to act, and now it was on the verge of self destruction. Lady Katana extended her mind outward. Unity had to be restored. The Nest had to be preserved. Her Master, the Dark Man was counting on her. Even if he did not punish her, the Sith apprentice could not bear the thought of letting down the one who had given her a purpose.

Katana fought to hold the two halves of the Nest together, feeling as though she was trying to hold together two magnets of the same charge. The Nest was, in a sense, a microcosm of the entire galaxy. Almost wanting to destroy itself. And the Sith were trying to save it. Even if it did not desire to be saved. Would their efforts be enough? _Will my efforts be enough?_

Katana uttered a Falleen curse, and stood up from her cross legged position on the ground. There was something else the Sith apprentice could try. Unfortunately, it meant she would have to reveal herself. As the Dark Man had said the Sith might have to do one day. She sighed; this necessity would certainly complicate the situation.

Lady Katana was a blur as she hurried out of her small, concealed meditation chamber, and through a series of earthen tunnels. She slowed to a walk as she came upon the edge of a thundering storm of shattergun pellets. Killiks, both dark and light, were falling at an alarming rate. A Temnonmet and Protomotorp lay in a mutually deadly embrace. The former driving its long stinger into an opponent that was cutting it in two with its massive jaws. Katana felt slightly sick. Though she had tried not to, she found that she'd come to care for these creatures.

Katana created her own storm of dark side energy, and bolstered it with her powerful Falleen pheromones. She directed this unseen cloud toward the Killiks. And then she felt it, as shatterguns began to grow silent. A powerful presence from outside the Nest. Circumstances had just forced her to make a potentially grave mistake. _Is it a mistake?_

A sense of purpose radiated from this outsider. Someone was coming to invade. To destroy the Nest. An even greater enemy to unite the feuding Protomotorp and Temnonmet. This enemy would, in fact, _save_ the Nest.

* * *

 **The humming** of four lightabers could scarcely be heard over the roaring shatterguns. What should have been a safe haven for Protomotorp's larvae had degenerated into a den of slaughter. The innocent fell to stray and intentional shattergun pellets, and the occasional slash from a lightsaber. Tahiri, Seff, and the rest of Protomotorp seemed helpless to save them.

Tahiri loved Yantahar and Kolir; they were family. But they were also murderers. And, as much as she hated herself for it, they had to... die. Because she knew they would never...

This was all wrong. Murdering each other like utter savages. This division would destroy everything. Both Protomotorp and Temnonmet were victims of an unfortunate situation. But both were also perpetrators. The Jedi, on the other hand, were only perpetrators. The Jedi were to blame for all this death. _We were the catalyst for all this violence._ Tahiri found that she was crying, and started wiping at her eyes.

"I feared this might happen," said a gentle female voice.

As Yantahar turned toward the source of the voice, he realized that he could no longer hear the shatterguns or the lightsabers. Walking into the Protomotorp nursery was a beautiful Falleen woman, dressed a bit like a bounty hunter. Her scaled skin was orangish with agitation. "You're the head of Black Sun." Yantahar said, not quite sure whether or not it was a question.

"I was," she admitted. "My flagship was attacked by the Chiss. I barely managed to escape in my TIE Defender, but not before it was damaged. I was forced to crash land, here, on Nrogu. I abandoned the fighter and sought shelter in an underground tunnel. It led me to this Nest.

"I learned that it was, in fact, two nests forced to live together by circumstances beyond their control. They were locked in this horrible cycle detrimental to all involved. Both nests made me one of their own. Both nests became my family. So I used my connection to both nests and my Falleen pheromones to unite them into one nest. But, as we have all just witnessed, this unity is very difficult to maintain.

"But, we need it desperately for what's coming. The Chiss have sent people here to kill all of us. They'll do whatever they feel is necessary to avoid another Swarm War. Their tradition of non aggression does not apply to Killiks."

* * *

 **Though Han** really did not like Killiks, he was deeply disturbed by the scene before him. Most of the Killiks were injured in some way. A vast number of them lay on the ground, most dead or soon to be, and in pieces. Some were still twitching. He shook his head. They didn't deserve to die this way.

But to Han's slight surprise there were no Chiss, or evidence thereof, to be seen. Had the Chiss actually been here, he doubted the nest would still even be standing. The Verpine shatterguns and small alloy pellets littering the ground suggested that these Killiks had been fighting amongst themselves. "There seems to be two different species here," Han commented, as he noticed that there were both dark and light colored Killiks.

Ben thought about the Force, with its dark and light sides. Forever locked in an endless...

His blood seemed to turn to ice as a Falleen woman appeared from a side passage. She had to be the missing head of Black Sun. Daughter of Prince Xizor. She'd been using the Nest to help Black Sun. Ben brushed her in the Force. The dark side flowed from her with the subtlety of a gentle stream. She must have been the source of that brief flicker of darkness his father had felt.

* * *

 **Tahiri felt** an odd pressure on her mind as she and the other Jedi followed, some distance, behind Katana. She nearly vomited upon seeing all the dead and injured Killiks. The feeling only worsened when she spotted Luke, along with his son, Ben, Han and Leia. They were family. Would they really come to kill her? She'd been a Joiner once before. She'd been Riina Kwaad, an alternate personality created by the Yuuzhan Vong. She'd been an apprentice to Darth Caedus. Did they think she was beyond saving?

Katana gently placed a hand on Tahiri's shoulder. "I am so sorry. They have abandoned all of you. I could never do that." Katana sighed sadly. "The Jedi Order has been seeking better relations with the Chiss. They will not let four Jedi, who aren't even Masters, stand in the way of that. Did you not risk your own lives by going to meet with the Chiss on the Masters' behalf? The four of you nearly died. You are all expendable to them. You know what has to be done. I wish it did not have to come to this, but we must defend the Nest."

* * *

 **Luke was** relieved to have found the missing Jedi, but also mortified to find them with this Falleen Sith. The mental walls around them were too strong for him to break through. "I can't reach any of them."

"That's not the only problem we've got," Ben said, as more, uninjured, Killiks began to show themselves. "My ex-girlfriend and Gev decided to bring some company," he explained.

"Thorden," Han muttered, as though it was a curse. "Do his 'friends' know they're walking into a bu... Killik nest?"

"Maybe not," Leia said.

Han sighed, not liking the plan forming in his head. "Vestara and those Mandos wanna kill us. What if they accidentally hit some of the Killiks?"

"I hate this plan already," Leia complained.

"But... it is a plan," Han replied.

* * *

 **Tahiri's brow** furrowed in confusion as Luke and the others approached. What were they planning? The four of them couldn't possibly... She reached beyond them, and became even more puzzled by what she sensed. A dozen or so hostile presences, one of which was uncomfortably familiar. Seconds later the she-grutchin, Vestara Khai, and a number of Mandalorians came from a nearby side passageway and opened fire.

Luke and the others weren't heading toward the Killiks so much as they were heading away from the new arrivals. _Vestara and the Mandos are the ones here to kill us._ Then what Katana had said must have been...

Tahiri frowned as stray fire began hitting and seriously injuring the Killiks, as though Luke, Ben, and Leia were trying to hurt them. It didn't make any sense. It had to be a ruse. They were all working together to destroy the Nest. If the Jedi were working with the Sith and the Mandalorians, it was even worse than Katana had said.

* * *

 **Despite Luke,** Ben, and Leia's best efforts, the Killiks were suffering significant injury from the deflected blaster fire. It was as if someone was guiding the energy bolts. Luke heard four lightsabers _snap-hissing_ to life more or less behind him and understood. The Falleen Sith. _She wants Tahiri and her team to see us as enemies._ And she was putting these innocent Killiks in harm's way to do it.

But before the rogue Jedi could attack, and the surviving Killiks could open fire with their shatterguns, a small missile sailed through the air. The entire universe seemed to scream and shake as what must have been a concussion missile hammered into the ground. And then that ground seemed to rise up and slam itself into Luke.

Han Solo groaned as he slowly started to rise to his feet. He glanced behind him at an impact crater, and noticed quite a few more injured or dead Killiks. And then Ben Skywalker was hauling Han to his feet, and more or less dragging him in the direction of Vestara and her 'friends'. "Uh, thanks," Ben told the Sith Saber.

"Didn't do it for you," Vestara said, sourly. "Now help us kill some bugs."

A subtle tingling sensation at the base of Ben's skull prompted the young man to spin around. He instinctively raised his hand against an incoming hail of shattergun pellets. They stopped as though hitting an invisible barrier and fell, harmlessly, to the ground. Shatterguns' nature as projectile weapons generally made them more deadly than many types of energy weapons of comparable size.

Being solid objects, rather than ionized gas, gave the alloy projectiles far greater momentum. That, combined with their small size, made them nearly impossible to block with the energy blade of a lightsaber. But being solid objects, rather than energy beams, also made it possible to more or less 'push' against the pellets with the Force.

The Killiks, both light and dark, appeared to be assuming a three pronged attack formation. Tahiri and Yantahar formed up with the larger, middle section. The air in front of the two Jedi shimmered a split second before the Mandalorians could open fire. High powered energy bolts crashed into the nearly invisible barrier, deforming it only slightly. Greenish veins of lightning to crackle upon its surface as the bolts fizzled out. Ben had never seen or felt Tahiri create such a powerful energy shield. Being part of the nest must have bolstered this defensive ability.

Kolir and Seff led the left and right formations in a pair of roughly mirrored flanking maneuvers. Without the ability to create a defensive shield like Tahiri had, these two Jedi were losing the majority of the Killiks. But the fallen insectoids were quickly replaced by their fellows from the base of the formation. Ben could sense the nest's Queen safely cocooned within her hordes. He thought about what he'd seen earlier. _If we can take out the Queen, maybe the nest will turn on itself._ But that wouldn't help Tahiri and the others. Unless. If enough Killiks died...

"They're trying to force us back the way we came!" Leia was shouting.

"How much you wanna bet they won't just let us leave?" Han yelled back. And as if on cue, a gentle rumbling came to life. At first he thought it was lizard girl deciding to bring the Void danged tunnel down. But unfortunately, Vestara shouting 'bugs!' confirmed that it was not.

"Got any more of those missiles?" Ben asked Vestara. She was standing very close to him. It was both comforting and unnerving.

"Ben," Vestara said sharply, with a deep frown, "the concussive force alone-"

"Queen," Ben interrupted.

Vestara turned her head and yelled something that sounded Mandalorian. Seconds later, a pair of concussion missiles was soaring toward the base of Killik attack formation. The missiles reached the top of their arcs, and then one of them suddenly changed course slightly. A miniature sun was born as one concussion missile slammed into the other. The fire lingered in Vestara's eyes for a few seconds after its source had died. If the lizard could do that...

Han heard Vestara utter a very colorful string of Mandalorian curses that echoed his own feelings perfectly. "There's another way to take out that Queen," Luke said grimly. "Got any more missiles left?" he asked Vestara.

The Sith Saber sighed. "One. If this doesn't work..."

"We'll make it work." Luke said. He frowned as weapons began screaming behind him. Those 'bugs' Vestara had shouted about had just arrived. This plan had to work. Now!


	15. Chapter 15

**Nrogu**

Han Solo and a trio of Mandalorians blasted away at the group of pale Killiks. The Mandos mowed them down with the automatic weapons, while Han resorted to potshots with his DL-44. The aging Corellian man managed to score a few lucky hits, but for the most part accomplished nothing.

A Mandalorian in deep maroon and mint-green armor grunted as a number of shattergun pellet finally found a way through his armor. The man stumbled slightly, but managed to keep his footing. He swung his blaster to the left, opening fire on a cluster of several pale Killiks. But the insectoids gained on him even as they were blown apart. The three remaining ones suddenly leapt at him. Two landed on the ground in twitching heaps, but the third managed to find its way past his fire. And with a savage thrust from its abdomen it plunged its stinger into his chest.

Han instinctively spun to his right, as the armored warrior went down. His DL-44 shrieked, leaving the offending Killik headless. He glanced at the now dead Mandalorian's blaster. Of course it would do him no good if got killed before he could...

A Mandalorian in pale lavender armor, who Han realized must have been Mirta Gev, jogged over to her fallen comrade. She gestured toward Han with her free hand, while firing her weapon with the other. Han holstered his DL-44 and scrambled over to grab the automatic heavy blaster. The monster roared to life, and Killiks fell silently to death. While the weapon did make Han feel powerful, it also made him feel like a murderer. But if he stopped, he and the two Mandalorians would die. They probably would, anyway. In the time that third blaster had been inactive, the pale Killiks had advanced surprisingly far.

The other eight Mandalorians and four Force users surged forward, deeper into the Nest. Six of the armored warriors fired exclusively on the right flank of the Killik attack formation. Seff Hellin, who led those insectoids, deflected or evaded most of the fire without too much difficulty. The Killiks, however, did not fare as well. But they were quickly replenished from the base of the formation.

* * *

 **Tahiri and** Yantahar saw the concussion missile coming straight for them; it left no doubt that Luke Skywalker had come not to save, but to kill, Tahiri and her friends. Her energy barrier flickered out of existence as she grabbed Yantahar, and pulled him to the ground. It reformed just before the concussion missile slammed into the ground, in the midst of dozens of Killiks. The protective energy dome rippled furiously with verdant lightning while the unfortunate insectoids nearby were blown to pieces or thrown up into the air. The two Jedi were left unconscious, but otherwise unharmed.

Ben, Vestara, Luke, and Leia ran straight into the carnage, toward the Queen's protective lair of insectile carapaces. They created concussive blasts of Force energy, slowing the incoming shattergun pellets, and killing their momentum. While four blades of light killed Killik after Killik, many of whom were still somewhat stunned. It sickened Ben, killing all these innocent creatures, but there was no way around it. He thought back to that time, years ago, when he'd briefly been under the sway of the Gorrog nest. Those Killiks, though they hadn't been innocent like these, had been family, and he had loved them.

Ben's love for Vestara was similar, though far stronger. And somewhat ironically, Vestara was far more evil than Gorrog had ever been. Of course those Killiks had merely been under the control of an evil Sith. Whereas Vestara _was_ an evil Sith.

Ben could sense Kolir and Seff breaking off from the Killiks under their command to come to the Queen's aid. He and Vestara broke away from Luke and Leia to intercept the two rogue Jedi. Ben felt a pang of sadness at the thought that this could very well be the last time he and Vestara were ever together. And if it wasn't, they would certainly be trying to kill each other. Ben knew he would be relieved if he never saw her again; he didn't want to have to kill her.

Vestara didn't want to have to kill him, which was why part of her hoped he died at someone else's hand. She would still mourn his loss, perhaps for the rest of her life. But at least she wouldn't be able to blame herself. Vestara heard Ben and Kolir's lightsabers clashing a few dozen meters behind her. Perhaps Ben would slip up somehow. Vestara knew Ben wouldn't want to take Kolir's life. _Come on, Ben. Try to save her._

Unlike Ben, Vestara had no qualms over killing her opponent. Seff meant nothing to her. Vestara launched a bolt of azure Force lightning at the mangy haired Jedi as he charged at her. He easily grounded the electricity on his blade. Vestara swung her own blade toward Seff's shoulder, but he managed to hold her arm back with a blast of Force energy.

* * *

 **Katana could** tell that these two blond Jedi were brother and sister; there was a powerful bond between the two. They moved as one, a cyclone of death through the Nest. Killiks tumbled to the ground in pieces. Shatterguns were pulled to the ground as though on invisible strings, while their pellets hit invisible barriers and fell.

Indigo parks began to dance upon the fingertips of Katana's right hand. And a crimson fire burned to life from the lightsaber in her left hand. It was time to act. This threat to the Nest had to be eliminated. The wall of Killiks before her parted as her servants unlinked their armored bodies. The comfortingly nauseating warmth of the dark side swirled around her like an invisible cloak as she came out to meet the brother and sister.

Katana raised her right hand as she ran toward the twins. Her Force lightning raged toward the sister, falling upon her blade and forcing her back a few feet. Katana swung her blade at the man; he barely managed to twist his body out of the way. The twins were already struggling to stay alive. And with the dark side guiding Katana's every move it was only a matter of time until they faced death.

* * *

 **Kolir fought** with a savage recklessness Ben had never seen from her before. Ben could scarcely recognize what he felt from her in the Force. Kolir was like a different person. Because her mind was not her own.

Kolir's lack of regard for her own life pushed her onward, and pushed Ben backward. Behind him he could hear hammering shatterguns and shrieking blasters. Kolir was trying to push him into it. He sent a sense of warning to Vestara; Seff would certainly be trying a similar move. Ben wondered if Vestara would have given him a similar warning. He suspected he wouldn't like the answer.

Ben also knew that he wouldn't like the answer to his current dilemma with Kolir. He had to kill her. Murder her. But what would that do to him? Would it be better to just let her...

 _Don't be an idiot, Ben._ He needed to allow himself to be angry. He needed to allow himself to hate. He would murder her, because it was his only option. And so Ben reached into that well of darkness within and pressed his attack.

* * *

 **Katana could** feel the twins growing tired, desperate. The sandy haired brother suddenly lunged forward, flinging his lightsaber at her. She swept her red blade right through the hilt of his lightsaber. The blade fizzled out, and the two pieces of the weapon clattered, harmlessly, to the ground. At the same time indigo fire exploded from Katana's free hand, slamming right into his chest, and throwing him back several meters.

Katana realized her mistake as her brain stem screamed a warning at her. She turned toward the sister, but the fiery agony erupting in Katana's abdomen told her she was too late. The sister pulled her blade out. Another swing, toward her neck...

* * *

 **The other** unnamed Mandalorian, in brown and orange armor, took a shattergun pellet to his visor and fell down, dead. Han quickly took partial cover behind Gev as a hail of shattergun pellets came their way. Mirta uttered a Mandalorian curse, and Han began to smell blood. It was only a matter of time until her armor was overwhelmed, which would leave Han without any cover. But there were far worse ways to go.

And then the shatterguns of the approaching Killiks went silent. Han and Gev cut off their fire almost instantly as the insectoids scurried by them. Toward the dark Killiks, of course.

Han frowned as he realized the truce was off. Which meant Gev no longer had a reason not to blow his head off. Han was in a similar position, if one ignored the fact that he was not wearing armor. He glanced at the pale Killiks, and groaned. He ran toward the insectoids, plunging into their ranks. They were completely disinterested, and easily maneuvered around him. Han ran with them, using them as a shield. He knew Gev was smart not to try to shoot him. With all the Killiks moving about it would be too easy for her to hit them. And she wouldn't want to risk antagonizing them.

* * *

 **Ben delivered** delivered a savage kick to the side of Kolir's knee. He heard something crack as her leg bowed slightly inward. Ben rained a series of vicious blows down on the Bothan woman's lightsaber as she stumbled backward. He jerked his hand, and the Force tore the weapon from Kolir's grasp. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as Ben swung his lightsaber toward her neck.

Something in Kolir's eyes suddenly changed. That peculiar fogginess was gone from her Force presence. Ben took his thumb off of his lightsaber's activation stud, allowing the blade to dematerialize before it could remove Kolir's head. But Ben's anger had not yet abated, and he still needed...

* * *

 **Seff lunged** forward, swinging his lightsaber toward Vestara's midsection. She leapt backward, but Seff continued his lunge. Vestara yelped as a fiery pain burned across her right side. Fortunately the cut wasn't too deep, and the heat of the blade had instantly cauterized the wound.

Vestara fed her physical, and emotional, pain into the Force. It left her hand as a blue fire. Seff tried to bring his lightsaber up to block, but his attack had left him too unbalanced. And the Force lightning crashed into him, knocking him to the ground.

As Vestara made her way over to him, she noticed a change in his eyes. He was no longer a Joiner, apparently. Not that Vestara cared. Seff was still her enemy. But before she could finish him off, a silent alarm detonated from the back of her mind.

Vestara spun, intercepting the lightsaber blade of an angry Ben Skywalker. She saw a madness in his eyes. Felt a madness in his Force aura. Vestara was proud of him. The man she loved was using the dark side, even if he wasn't fully aware of it. But she was also heart broken that the man she loved actually wanted to kill her.

His blade seemed to fall through the air, grabbing greedily for Vestara's blade like some monster intent on dragging it below the depths to drown it. Vestara grabbed desperately for the power of the dark side. That comforting darkness coursed through her body and her soul. The darkness guided her lightsaber, made it into a shield.

Vestara danced away from a particularly violent slash that would have cut her in two. Though, for a split second she thought it somehow had. Her side was wet, and she realized her wound had opened up.

Ben continued to drive Vestara back. He could see the blood slowly pouring from her side. He didn't actually have to kill her himself. He just had to keep her busy until she bled out. And then...

Ben felt a sharp warning, almost like a knife to his heart. He rolled to the ground, away from Vestara, just as a hail of large blaster bolts screamed toward. He return to his feet, and found himself deflecting and block a hail of high powered blaster bolts. The source of the fire was a trio Mandalorians, more or less running backwards in a sort of fighting retreat. Ben briefly glimpsed Vestara behind them, with her arm pressed against her side. His ex-girl friend and the three Mandos met up with a forth, in pale lavender armor.

* * *

 **Han just** stood there, breathing heavy and bracing his hands on his knees, as the horde of pale Killiks rushed by him. Their shatterguns screamed back to life as they ran to engage the dark-shelled Kiliks. "Gettiing too Void blasted old for this," he complained as he stood up.

Han counted the corpses of seven Mandalorians and one Falleen woman, whose head lay a meter or so from her body. Was this nightmare actually over?

Leia and Luke were helping Tahiri and Yantahar back to their feet. Seff was helping Kolir to her left foot; her right leg was bent to the side at an unnatural angle. Han saw Ben standing around, apparently not quite sure what he should be doing, and slowly made his way over to his nephew. Han briefly glanced toward where Gev had been, and glimpsed the armored backs of several Mandalorians.

* * *

 **Seff glanced** at the fighting Killiks as he helped Kolir over to one of the nest's exits. He felt sick upon seeing how outmatched the nest of Protomotorp was. But perhaps it was for the best. As long as the two sides were evenly matched the violence would continue, and peace would not come.

He was relieved when he saw Katana's dead body. For the next few months or years, even, Black Sun would be wracked by turmoil as it tried to figure out who'd replace their leader. The crime syndicate, hopefully, wouldn't be causing too much trouble during this period.


	16. Chapter 16

_**Millennium Falcon**_

Thrace sat quietly on Allana's lap. The little boy had made his Force presence so tiny that she could barely sense him. Allana could feel that he was terrified, so she held him a little tighter. She was scared, too, but not like he was. Thrace was probably thinking about what had happened to his mother.

The comm grandma Leia had given to Allana beeped, slightly startling the two. Thrace scooted off of Allana's lap as she picked the small device up. "Start her up," Leia's voice said. She was breathing heavy, like she was running.

Allana leapt up from the couch and, with a Force-enhanced burst of speed, ran to the _Falcon's_ cockpit. She'd practiced starting up the freighter many times, so it didn't take very long at all.

* * *

 **Han Solo** could still run at a fairly decent clip, thanks in part to Leia encouraging him to go for a run everyday, so long as there weren't more pressing matters. Nonetheless, his nephew Ben was still helping to drag him along. They had to make it to their ships before Vestara and her Mando friends made it to theirs.

Yantahar ran over to Kolir and Seff. He wasn't thrilled that Kolir's arm was around Seff's shoulders, even if it was to help her walk. Their time with the nest of Temnonmet had made Yantahar and Kolir nest mates. Seff and Tahiri had been part of Protomotorp, and thus had been enemies. Yantahar wondered how long it would take for all of that to wear off, as he got on Kolir's right, and she draped her arm over his shoulders. Yantahar was not quite sure how to define what he and Kolir now felt for each other. He wasn't even completely sure if it was real or not. But he didn't really care; whatever it was he didn't want it to die.

"You go with Tahiri," Yantahar told Seff as everyone reached the outcropping under which the _Falcon_ and _Shadow_ waited. There was no argument from Seff, as he currently didn't want much to do with the two Bothans.

 _ **Jade Shadow**_

"None of us realized Katana was a Sith, and it never even occurred to us that the woman who'd been leading Black Sun couldn't be trusted," Seff said.

"Killiks don't really think the same way fully sentient beings do. Controlling you through the Killiks meant that you wouldn't pick up on what she was doing," Luke Skywalker explained.

Tahiri nodded in agreement. "It should have been obvious that whoever attacked us was working with her, and was trying to help her turn us into Joiners."

"Another Swarm War would have been yet another thing to keep the Jedi busy," Luke said.

"And less able to deal with the Sith," Ben added. He frowned. "What I don't really understand is how Thorden fits into all this. Thorden's obviously working with the Sith, too. But if Katana had managed to start another Swarm War, the Sith would sort of be fighting against each other."

Luke had a thoughtful look on his face. "What if she wasn't meant to start another Swarm War? I mean after the last one, the Chiss aren't going to be taking any chances. Thorden's fleet is in the general area, more or less. He could just bombard Nrogu, and look like a hero for preventing another conflict." It was apparent that Tahiri and Seff were indifferent to the fate of the nest. If Protomotorp hadn't been wiped out by now, they soon would be.

Ben groaned. "And then they'd elevate his rank. Sounds kind of like what happened with Palpatine. He helps end the blockade of Naboo, which could've turned into something a lot worse. And it leads to him becoming Supreme Chancellor." He was silent a moment. "You don't think... Palpatine must've had a master."

Luke nodded. "And you think Palpatine's master might also be Thorden's master."

Ben sighed. "Could be. I mean, they seem to operate the same... ish. And we know virtually nothing about Palpatine's master."

"You bring up a really good point," Luke said. "If you're right this could be really bad." Luke said.

"Dark Man bad, maybe?" Ben suggested. "I mean the dude's not gonna just be doing nothing, right?"

Tahiri frowned. "And you said he was like Abeloth. She's pretty much immortal, so how long has this Dark Man not been 'doing nothing'?"

"Too darn long," Ben said, not having a better answer to offer.

Tahiri rolled her eyes. "If Thorden's being groomed to be the next Palpatine, we might want to do something about him. The Dark Man will have gotten smarter, so..." She let the sentence hang, unfinished, and then glanced over at Seff. "We should go into healing trances," she suggested. It would also give her a chance to take a break from the current conversation, and Ben seemed to want to talk to his father about something.

"Sounds like a good idea," Luke said. He watched Tahiri and Seff leave the bridge, holding hands. The new bond that existed between them, clearly a product of their time in the Protomotorp nest, brought back a sense of nostalgia. Jaina and Jacen had once once had a similar bond. It made Luke strangely sad to know that this bond would probably fade away in a few days.

"I almost murdered Kolir," Ben confessed. "She was trying to kill me. Well, Katana was trying to make her kill me. I thought that the only way I could kill her was if I hated her." he went on, staring at a spot on the floor. "If you and Aunt Leia hadn't stopped Katana when you did, I would've cut her head off."

Luke placed a gentle, concerned hand on his son's shoulder. "I've experienced that kind of darkness, too, Ben. It's inevitable. But it's something you can come back from. My father came back from a whole lot worse. And things back there on Nrogu turned out alright. We got our missing Jedi back, and we all survived. We also delivered a blow to... whatever the heck the Sith were planning. You _didn't_ get the chance to kill Kolir, and she's going to be fine."

Ben was silent a moment. "When we first started looking for Vestara again... I thought I wouldn't be able to kill her. But after I saw that Kolir wasn't being controlled anymore... I was still so angry, and I needed... to do something. I thought I could catch Vestara off guard. And then I almost got my vaping head blown off. That anger blinded me."

Ben frowned when he noticed his father nodding his head. "You knew didn't you, that I..."

"I knew it was a possibility," Luke acknowledged. "I was worried about what it would do to you if you killed Vestara."

"And it wouldn't mess you up, because you're not the one who's... in love with her. You were planning on killing her because you were worried that I _could_."

Luke nodded. "It messed me up when I killed Lumiya, and she was only someone I _used_ to love."

 **Shedu Maad**

Thrace stared at the couple for a moment. Kam Solusar and Tionne Solusar were their names. They were old, but not as old as Han Solo. They were his parents now. He liked them; they both seemed very kind. Thrace tried to remember his real parents, but he couldn't. There was something... in the way.

Thrace turned back to Allana. "I don't want you to go," he said.

"I know, sweetie. But I have to go back to Hapes."

"To be a princess, and be bored," he said.

"Uh, yeah," Allana said, sighing. "But I'll come here and visit whenever I can." She gave him a hug, and then followed her grandparents back to the _Millennium Falcon_.

* * *

 **Yantahar knew** something was wrong when an unhappy Luke Skywalker walked over to where he sat with Kolir. "We just received word that Thorden destroyed the nest. I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault," Yantahar responded. _Force forsake you, Thorden._ Of course he understand why the man had done it, but that didn't make it right.

 ** _Ship_ , en route to Korriban **

Vestara came out of her healing trance curled up on the floor of the Sith Meditation Sphere. She slowly sat up, once again marveling at the floor. It looked like some sort of razor-sharp rock, yet it was soft and spongy. She lifted up the side of her shirt and looked at the bacta bandage. Vestara carefully removed it. The wound had been stitched up with dissolvable bacta thread. Though things were healing quite nicely, she would still be left with a scar.

 _Someone called to me during your healing trance. We are en route to Korriban to meet this individual._

"It's not..."

 _Abeloth?_ _No, silly girl_. _The Dark Man._

Vestara found herself speechless. She'd seen him in visions, but she'd never imagined that she would meet the one who would save the galaxy.

 **Korriban**

The ceiling of the dome-shaped room was slowly irising closed as Sith Saber Vestara Khai, her lightersaber drawn and humming, nervously waited for the Sith Meditation Sphere's boarding ramp to lower.

Vestara took a look around as she cautiously walked down the boarding ramp. A series of sconces arrayed about the perimeter of the roughly hewn stone room cast a soft red-orange light. There were also several doorways leading out of the round chamber.

Vestara extended her Force awareness and felt no other presences save that of the Sith Meditation Sphere. This Dark Man either wasn't here or he was hiding in the Force... Movement in one of the doorways suddenly caught her eye. And standing silently there, invisible in the Force, was a figure in a dark robe. Vestara's blood immediately went cold, and hot at the same time. The Dark Man.

Suddenly able to sense him in the Force, Vestara reached out a second time. And tried to suppress a shudder. This Dark Man did not seem to be alive. Nor did he seem to be dead, either. Undead, then?

While he did not seem nearly as powerful in the dark side as Abeloth, this Dark Man seemed to be far more in control of himself. Which could make him a far more dangerous enemy.

"Or a very powerful ally, Vestara Khai, Sith Saber of Kesh," said a low, rich voice with a peculiar antiquated quality to it, the owner of which had seemingly read her mind. "I am Darth Plagueis." Vestara felt as though she was in a trance as this Dark Man walked slowly toward her. The Sith Saber's eyes were locked on Darth Plagueis as he pulled back his hood. Revealing... darkness.

She had never imagined that the Dark Man would be so... literal. Perhaps it was so that there could be no doubt as to his identity. This Darth Plagueis then was the one who was destined to battle the Jedi Queen Allana Solo for the Throne of Balance. Could the Dark Man do it? Could he kill the Queen? Or at least orchestrate her death?

And then the Sith could take control of the Throne of Balance. It could mean the end of millennia of war between Sith and Jedi. Peace. Finally.

This Dark Man seemed to be regarding her with his faceless, eyeless gaze. Here was Vestara, a pariah among her fellow Sith. A traitor for her time spent among the Jedi. A failure for not being able to kill their future Queen.

And this Darth Plagueis. He had summoned her. Wanted her, in spite of all she had done wrong. Vestara could not let him down. She'd been given a second chance. A chance to redeem herself. For her mistakes and failures.

"My Lord," Vestara said, bowing her head slightly.

 **A/N: Fate of the Jedi: Retribution picks up 8 years after this fic.**


	17. Chapter 17

The Monolith and the Dagger

 **Korriban**

Darth Plagueis sat, immersed in the metaphysical haze of the dark side. The undead Sith Lord sent his mind outward, toward Nrogu. And as expected he encountered a sort of barrier to his Force perception. But Plagueis managed to push a small piece of his soul through the peculiar stone containing the elements and minerals responsible.

It was only a vague impression which Plagueis received, but it was enough to inform him that things had gone quite wrong. The Dark Man knew that Katana was dead. And along with dark side residue, he also sensed that the light side had been at work. Jedi had evidently found and killed her. Even worse, Plagueis had felt nothing to suggest the future Jedi Queen had been killed. He had feared this might happen after Thorden's previous failure.

But there was something else. Something he had not expected. There had been another user of the dark side. And with this individual was the Sith Meditation Sphere he'd encountered a few years ago. Plagueis removed that small shard of his soul from the Nest and extended it toward this curious starship. _Come to me._

 _Yes, my lord._

Darth Plagueis could not help but wonder where _Ship_ had been all this...

The Sith Lord briefly lost his train of thought as the dark side all but consumed him. He could see Thorden standing before a great shadow which was bent on destroying the galaxy, but it was not the future Queen of the Jedi. Once again Plagueis could see the two shining points of silvery light above a great, ragged tear in the universe. Framed by a nebula of course, yellowish hair. Indeed the dark side, in its infinite wisdom, was telling Darth Plagueis not to kill Thorden. At least not until he'd taken his stand against... Abeloth.

* * *

 **Several hours** later, Darth Plagueis stood within a doorway set into the perimeter of the dome-shaped chamber, one with the darkness around him. Safely outside the soft red-orange glow provided by a number of sconces. The roof was irising open like some great eye enlarging its pupil to let in more light. Or in this case, another great eye.

The ancient Sith Meditation Sphere stopped a few feet above the floor of the chamber. A boarding ramp folded out from its side, and soundlessly made contact with the floor. Darth Plagueis remained silent and hidden as a young woman, a crimson bladed lightsaber in hand, walked down the ramp. Her Force aura was tinged with a light yellow, a nervousness. But there was also a gentle verdant glow. Hope.

Darth Plagueis could feel her trying to reach out to him. She wanted to find him. Needed desperately to find him. He stepped partly out from the twilight, just enough that she could see him. And then he allowed her to sense him through the Force. She seemed to almost recognize him, and was both fascinated and mortified. Orange joined the colors of her Force aura, indicating a level of confusion. The girl wondered how one could be neither dead nor alive. Of course Plagueis, himself, still found it odd. He reached a part of his soul into hers. She... Vestara Khai knew he could be a powerful enemy.

"Or a very powerful ally, Vestara Khai, Sith Saber of Kesh," Plagueis said in a low, rich voice with a peculiar antiquated quality to it. "I am Darth Plagueis." He pulled back his hood, and Vestara could not look away.

"My Lord," Vestara said, with a slight bow of her head. She lifted her head back up, and brushed away a few locks of long, dark hair. Her dark eyes had grown large in the dim light.

"You came from Nrogu, it seems."

"Yes."

"Tell me what happened," Darth Plagueis gently prompted.

"I had joined a group of Mandalorians a few months ago. Someone who called themselves 'Red Eye' contacted the Mandalorian commander, Mirta Gev, and put out a hit. On a girl named Allana Solo."

Darth Plagueis nodded. "The future queen of the Jedi, if she is not eliminated."

"So you've tried to kill her, too." Vestara thought back to her first attempt to kill Allana. Part of her really hadn't wanted to do it. But regardless of how cute the kid was, Allana was a threat to the Lost Tribe.

"Indirectly," Plagueis answered. "Though that appears to have been a mistake. But we will get into all that later."

"Our contact, who called himself 'Red Eye', told us Allana and her grandparents had gone to Nrogu to search for a team of missing Jedi. When we entered the Nest we opened fire almost immediately because we didn't want our targets to have time to plan an escape. There were some... surprises waiting for us. Luke Skywalker and his son, Ben." She paused, felt a sense of recognition from Plagueis, and went on. "And a Killik nest. Those missing Jedi-there were four of them-had become Joiners.

"We soon discovered that someone was directing our fire toward the Killiks, apparently to turn them against us. I thought it might've been Leia or one of the Skywalkers at first, but... I'm pretty sure it was actually the Nest's Queen. The Nest seemed to be made up of two different species that I guess wanted to kill each other. The Queen must've thought that if the Nest fought everyone else the two species wouldn't be able to afford to turn on each other.

"Leia and Luke managed to kill the queen. That 'freed' those four Jedi Joiners. We'd already lost a few Mandalorians, and so we were outmatched and had to retreat. And we never even found the blasted girl."

Darth Plagueis shook his head. "The one you call 'Red Eye'... was my apprentice. He was supposed to kill the child, himself, but he was weak. Which was why he tried to get someone else to do it."

"And then the blasted Jedi got in the way," Vestara said.

Darth Plaguies nodded. "This queen you speak of was a Falleen?"

"Yes."

"Katana. She was supposed to build up the Nest on Nrogu, which was why I had those Jedi delivered to her. My Chiss apprentice was supposed to destroy the Nest to prevent another Swarm War. This would have set him onto the path of a higher rank. But given how he's failed me as an apprentice this might mean very little. Katana's death may very well have been wasted." The Sith Lord was silent a moment. "I remind you of someone," he finally mused.

Vestara nodded. "Have you, by any chance, met a being named Abeloth?"

Darth Plagueis nodded. "She is the one who allowed me to regain physical form. You fear that we are allies? Abeloth believes this, but she is simply a means to an end," he explained dismissively. "A forest fire to allow for new growth. But if it rages for too long it will destroy everything."

Vestara nodded. "The Jedi had that in mind, too. They've been looking for a weapon called the Mortis Dagger. They it can destroy her for good. I've actually spent time among them. Almost became one of them. And I did have something with Ben. But a Jedi just isn't who I am."

"The Jedi are a very misguided order. They are far too concerned with being good to do the things which are necessary. What you've learned about them could be very valuable." Darth Plagueis said. "It appears as though the Force is truly at work. My fellow Sith Lord, Darth Krayt had a vision, years ago, of this very weapon. We believe it resides in the Mortis Monolith."

"I might have been inside this monolith," Vestara said. "I don't know how many monoliths like that there are."

 **The Bubble**

Darth Plagueis sat cross legged on the floor of the Sith Meditation Sphere, immersed in the dark side of the Force, as the ancient vessel bored through the vast, swirling nothingness of hyperspace. He'd never been connected to the Force in such an intimate way when he'd been... 'alive'. Suspended between life and death as he was had allowed him to look beyond a veil mere mortals could not penetrate. To see the machinery beyond the access panel.

The relative emptiness of hyperspace provided Darth Plagueis a sanctuary from those incessant, not-quite-undetectable, vibrations existing within realspace. And his perception was far less limited by the flow of time. While the Sith Meditation Sphere greatly enhanced his ability to touch the Force.

Countless images and impressions bored through Darth Plagueis' mind, though too rapid and vague for him to fully make sense of. The shadows he'd first seen years before had begun to resolve themselves into great, dark shapes. Phantoms swimming through space, and blotting out light from the stars. Some of them had horns, like demons.

And then, a great multitude of eyes blacker than the deepest pit. Their beyond-hateful gaze plunging itself into the depths of his soul, like so many searing hot knives. Plagueis had never truly believed in evil, but now he began to wonder if he had been wrong. The Anti-Force, that great abomination was coming. Perhaps it was already here, just waiting for the right moment to rear its monstrous head.

A sort of static was suddenly intruding upon Plagueis' waking nightmare, indicating that the Sith Meditation Sphere had just reentered realspace. The noxious fog of the Sith Lord's inner vision dissipated as though blown away by a refreshing breeze.

And then part of _Ship's_ red-brown hull seemed to dissipate, as it became transparent. Darth Plagueis gazed into space at a truly enormous structure, resembling two black pyramids joined together at the base. The monolith loomed ever larger as the Sith Meditation Sphere drew ever closer. The undead Sith Lord could feel and see the dark side radiating from the structure. To the point where it was actually stretching the fabric of space-time. Dark energy. How odd.

Darth Plagueis extended his soul toward the mysterious monolith. Running his Force perception over it like the tentacles of an octopus, searching for an entrance inside. He could find no such thing, but that meant little to him. He knew it was there.

The undead Sith Lord reached deeply into the depths of the dark side. He allowed a gently seething fury to ignite and feed that darkness. The dark side pushed back by turning that rage, with a massive return, back on Plagueis. But he fought this scalding cascade of power, and redirected it toward the monolith. The massive structure offered some resistance, but it slowly began to give way. It was a bit like opening a heavy door; the task became much easier after it was started.

Darth Plagueis suddenly sensed a hole in the monolith. He'd not even sensed it forming, its appearance seemingly instantaneous. Plagueis took _Ship_ closer to their destination. And was quite intrigued at what he sensed. There was the entrance, yet at the same time it was not there. It was like quantum physics where something, in this case a doorway, could exist in two states at once. Open and closed. But this was only supposed to be the case until the object was observed. Here the doorway was, being observed and yet it still seemed to be both open and closed. Perhaps it was due to Plagueis' undead state.

The Dark Man willed the door to be open. Willed his Sith Meditation Sphere into the monolith. And the ancient, sentient vessel passed through as though there was nothing there. As _Ship_ came to hover a meter or so above the floor, Plagueis noticed that he could no longer sense the doorway.

The dark side was even more potent within the monolith. There were shadows here. Spirits imprisoned long ages ago. They gathered about the Sith Meditation Sphere, their Force auras dark, and tinged with an orangish curiosity. The nearest spirits recoiled slightly as the boarding ramp lowered itself to the floor. These ancients shadows began to whisper as Darth Plagueis stepped onto the boarding ramp. The Dark Man gently brushed these shadows in the Force, and allowed them to do the same with him, as he walked down the ramp. There was no light here, but through the Force, Plagueis could 'see' that he was stood in a massive space.

"What is it?" one of the shadows hissed.

"It is new," exclaimed what Plagueis thought was another spirit. Though he could not be entirely sure, as it was difficult to tell one spirit from another.

"What is its name?" came another whisper.

"Darth Plagueis is my name. As for what I am? I am neither dead nor alive."

"As are we. But we are disembodied. It is corporeal, and we are not."

Darth Plagueis could feel a deep longing from these shadows. "And you wish to be corporeal, yes?"

"It speaks truth. This monolith is our vessel. We cannot leave for we are disembodied."

"And if you had bodies could you leave?" Plagueis inquired.

"We could," answered one of the phantoms. This one was... different. It stood out among the others as a clear individual. "Some of us have done so," _he_ continued. "We can possess vessels who are not users of the Force, if they allow us. Vessels gifted with the Force do not have room for us. We cannot possess them."

Plagueis nodded. This matched what Vestara had told him, before he'd left for the monolith, about a Mandalorian man named Barduun who had been possessed by one of these spirits. "What, may I ask, is your name?"

The spirit was silent a few seconds. "Skal'nas," he said eventually.

"I recognize this name," Darth Plagueis mused.

"I was a Predor of the Rakata," Skal'nas replied, after some thought.

Indeed, Plagueis had read this about Skal'nas. He was glad the Rakatan spirit was able to remember his past. _Perhaps you can be useful._ "If you help me, Predor Skal'nas, I will try to

give you enough of a physical form so that you may leave this prison." How hard Plagueis would actually 'try' remained to be seen.

"What must I do, my Lord?" Skal'nas asked, his Force aura beginning to take on a soft, green hue. He was hopeful that Darth Plagueis could help him.

"You can tell me if this is the Mortis Monolith."

"I believe it is," replied Skal'nas. "This monolith did once lead to a world called Mortis."

"But no longer?" Plagueis asked, growing mildly concerned.

"The world and the gateway leading to it were both destroyed. You seek something from Mortis, yes?"

"A weapon called the Mortis Dagger."

"Some of the world came through the gateway. The Mortis Dagger may be among the debris. Or it may not."

Plagueis looked around, and found that he could now see things he could not see before. Piles of rubble, and downed trees. These debris were there because he had decided they were there. Just as with the entrance into the monolith. "The Mortis Dagger is here somewhere," the undead Sith Lord decided.

Darth Plagueis allowed the Force to take hold of him. He allowed it to pull him, guide him toward one of the heaps of rubble. He gestured at the pile, and the bricks floated upward as though gravity no longer existed. Slowly falling upward toward the ceiling, among the debris, was the hilt of a dagger. Darth Plagueis reached forward and gently plucked it from the air. He decided that the blade existed, and suddenly it was there.

"Thank you, Predor Skal'nas," Darth Plagueis said. The undead Sith Lord extended his right hand toward the Rakatan spirit. Plagueis thought back to Abeloth, who had given him a physical form. He should be able to do this, also. Focusing on Skal'nas, the Dark Man reached deep withing himself. Plagueis used the Force to pull part of his essence from his body, as a sort of oily, tar-like cloud.

The green of the former Rakatan Predor's Force aura was joined by a cautious orange. He probed at this mysterious cloud, trying to understand it. To see if it was safe. The Dark Man waited patiently. This was not the sort of thing one could rush. It would not do to scare Skal'nas off. The Predor needed to have some trust in Darth Plagueis.

Plagueis now could sense Skal'nas' presence within the cloud. This fog began taking on a sort of egg-shape. It thinned and elongated. What resembled an outrigger engine grew from the left and right sides. Eyestalks. Below and between them a mouth, full of dagger-like teeth, began to form. This head then took on a subtle red-brown color, and golden eyes appeared within the eyestalks. "Thank you, my Lord," Skal'nas said, the orange in his Force aura giving way to a relieved pale blue.

Darth Plagueis saw Skal'nas' gentle orange curiosity as the now somewhat corporeal spirit eyed the Meditation Sphere. "Have you heard of a world called Korriban? That is where I would like to take you."


End file.
